Posts Tagged ‘No. 3 London Dry Gin’

Review: No 3 London Dry Gin

Posted by Arctic Wolf on April 6, 2020

Berry Bros. & Rudd is London’s oldest wine and spirits merchant with over 300 years of experience and tradition to draw on. Use this expertise and a team of spirits experts they created No. 3 London Dry Gin. The recipe is based upon three fruits and three spices, and to those I shall speak to in the review. However, I shall say as a bit of foreshadowing, that sometimes artistry can be found in simplicity.

I first sampled the No. 3 Gin at a store called Lacombe Park Spirits in St. Albert, Alberta. I had come to know the proprietors, Karim and his brother Jeff, quite well over the past couple of years, and when Karim discovered that I was about to venture into a series of Gin reviews he insisted that I try one of his favourites.

I was convinced after one sip that this was a gin which I wanted to review, and after contacting the website for No. 3 London Dry Gin, Berry Brothers & Rudd, arranged for me to receive a bottle sample. This was the start of my love affair with No. 3 London Dry Gin. It’s been about nine years since that original review and I have returned to No. 3 Gin a few times already to re-taste and update my findings.

The quality is always present and it remains one of the best gins I have tasted.

Review: No 3 London Dry Gin

“… Juniper leads out strongly into the mouth and can knock the taste-buds for a loop if you grab too much at a time. Although the juniper is firm and unrelenting upon the palate, the other botanicals each leave their mark as well. A lightly sweet orange flavour tends to soften the juniper. The angelica root gives the gin an earthy quality which is no doubt strengthened by an herbal and pungent cardamom. A peppery spiciness is carried forward by the grapefruit and orange peel and this spiciness is strengthened by the cardamom and coriander spices …”

Please enjoy my review which concludes with two cocktail suggestions, Leo Engels’ 1878 Gin Cocktail. and the No. 3 Classic Martini.

Chimo!

Posted in Gin, Gin Review | Tagged: Berry Bros. and Rudd, Gin, No. 3 London Dry Gin, Review | Comments Off on Review: No 3 London Dry Gin

Summer Cocktails No 2: The Gimlet

Posted by Arctic Wolf on July 10, 2017

The Gimlet is perhaps my favourite gin cocktail. This simple serving though, is not without its share of controversy as over time a growing group of ‘cocktail police’ began to insist that the libation must be made in a particular way in order to properly be called a Gimlet. Any other construction they maintained ws not the bar drink which we call the Gimlet.

At the center of this controversy is a lime cordial called Rose’s Lime, which according to those aforementioned ‘protectors of the cocktail’ must be used in the bar drink’s construction rather than sweetened lime juice. I did a bit of research, and discovered that the controversy over the Gimlet stretched back to at least 1953 when a description found in the Raymond Chandler novel, The Long Goodbye, stated:

“a real gimlet is half gin and half Rose’s lime juice and nothing else”

The fact that this statement made it into Chandler’s novel indicates that bartenders of the time were already arguing over the proper form of this simple cocktail, and it very well could be that the popularity of Raymond Chandler as a novelist and screenwriter fueled the belief among those Cocktail Police that this was the only construction that should be considered as proper.

However; If one goes back even further in time (all the way to 1928), we can find a different viewpoint put forward by D.B. Wesson in his book, I’ll never be Cured, where his description of the Gimlet is:

“gin, a spot of lime, and soda.”

Apparently, in this earlier period, the recipe for the Gimlet was more generic and even included soda as the sweetener. This indicates to me that the narrative put forward by the aforementioned cocktail protectors should be reassessed.

The truth is that we have not found a definitive starting point for the recipe of the Gimlet. It is also true that almost all bar servings evolve over time as better ingredients are discovered, and newer versions of the mixed servings are put forward. Even the word ‘cocktail’ has evolved over time from its beginnings when the term referred to a very specific style of bar drink to the present when it now refers to a large variety of bar drinks.

I say, let’s avoid stagnation and allow evolution to continue!

Here is the Gimlet in it’s most basic form mixed with one of my favorite Dry Gins, No 3 London Dry Gin and fresh Lime Juice:

The Gimlet

2 oz No 3 London Dry Gin
3/4 oz Fresh Lime Juice
1/2 oz Sugar Syrup (1:1 Ratio)
Ice
Lime Slice for garnish

Add the three main ingredients into a metal shaker with ice
Shake until the outside of the shaker begins to frost
Double strain into a Cocktail Glass
Float a Lime Slice on top
Enjoy

If you are interested in more of my cocktail recipes, please click this link (Cocktails and Recipes) for more of my mixed drink recipes!

You may read my review of No 3 London Dry Gin Gin here: (Review: No 3 London Dry Gin)

Posted in Cocktails & Recipes | Tagged: Cocktails, Gimlet, Gin, Mixed Dinks, No. 3 London Dry Gin | Comments Off on Summer Cocktails No 2: The Gimlet

# 86 No. 3 London Dry Gin

Posted by Arctic Wolf on September 30, 2015

I first sampled the No. 3 Gin at a store called Lacombe Park Spirits in St. Albert, Alberta. I have come to know the proprietors, Karim and his brother Jeff, quite well over the past couple of years, and when Karim discovered that I was about to venture into a series of Gin reviews he insisted that I try one of his favourites.

London No. 3 SAM_1251 I was convinced after one sip that this was a gin which I wanted to review, and after contacting the website for No. 3 London Dry Gin, Ross Hendry from Berry Brothers & Rudd, arranged for me to receive a bottle sample with of course the help of the local distributor Charton Hobbs.

Here is a link to my review of the #86 Spirit in my Rum Howler 2015 Top 100 Spirits Countdown:

#86 – No. 3 London Dry Gin

“… When that first sample was poured for me at Lacombe Spirits, the first thing I noticed was the assertiveness of the aroma around the glass. I commented to Karim (the proprietor of Lacombe Park Spirits) that this was exactly how I liked my gin to smell in the glass. The nose was full of juniper, but it was not sharp and unpleasant, rather it was full of aromatics which lifted the juniper scent out of the glass and then surrounded it with floral notes and a beguiling sweetness …”

________________________________________________________________

You may follow my Countdown list of the 100 Best Spirits here: The Rum Howler 2015 – Top 100 Spirits

Posted in Awards, Extras, Gin, Gin Review | Tagged: Berry Bros. and Rudd, Gin, No. 3 London Dry Gin, Review, Rum Holwer, Top 100 Spirits | Comments Off on # 86 No. 3 London Dry Gin

Martini Monday: The Gin Martini

Posted by Arctic Wolf on June 29, 2015

Gin Martini

Gin appears to be the original Martini spirit. There is some speculation as to how exactly this bar drink evolved, the beginnings of this cocktail form was perhaps initiated as early as 1888 when a recipe for a bar drink which consisted of half a wine glass of Old Tom Gin, and half a wine glass of Vermouth was published (Johnson, Harry (1888), The New and Improved Illustrated Bartenders’ Manual; Or: How to Mix Drinks of the Present Style). Over time this simple bar drink evolved and changed into the present day Martini.

Prohibition did its part to popularize the Martini as its main ingredient, Gin, was very easy for an illicit establishment to produce (illegally), and by the time prohibition ended, the Gin Martin may well have been the most popular bar drink served in North America.

Today, it remains a popular cocktail. Like the Vodka Martini (which arrived later on the scene), the Gin Martini can be served at varying degrees of dryness depending upon the amount of aromatized wine (usually vermouth) is used in its construction. The traditional recipes found in the cocktail guides from the 1920’s usually recommend a ratio of gin to vermouth of 2:1. Modern recipes contain much less vermouth, and in fact my brother-in-law’s favourite recipe calls for his cocktail glass to be rinsed with Vermouth only and the rest of the volume of his cocktail to be gin and garnish.

Traditional Gin Martini (cucumber garnish)

At the recent Belvedere Martini Seminar hosted by Ali Dedianko, Belvedere Vodka Global Ambassador, she made the point that we should perhaps explore also a larger range of garnishes than the typical olive or lemon peel. One of the garnishes she suggested was cucumber, and that is the direction I have chosen to go for this particular construction of my Gin Martini which combines No. 3 London Dry Gin and Stock Vermouth with thin slice of cucumber in an excellent Martini cocktail:

The following link will take you to my recipe page:

Gin Martini (with cucumber garnish)

Note: I made this point with respect to the traditional Vodka Martini, and it bears repeating again with respect to the Gin Martini. Once you open any bottle of vermouth, it is important that you realize that all aromatized wines have a very short shelf life. This is because the wine will begin to oxidize almost immediately, and after only one short week (even if the bottle is refrigerated) it’s flavour will have undergone a noticeable and undesirable change. I suspect in fact, that it is experiences with bad vermouth that have led many people to decrease its volume in the classic martini cocktail, not understanding that the vinegary component they are tasting is not a normal flavour component of good vermouth.

Please use fresh vermouth whenever you are serving Martini cocktails.

Posted in Cocktails & Recipes | Tagged: Cocktails, Gin Martini, No. 3 London Dry Gin, Stock Vermouth, Traditional | 3 Comments »

Martini Monday: Reversing the Vesper

Posted by Arctic Wolf on June 22, 2015

Ali Stirs up a Cocktail

Two weeks ago I introduced the Vesper Cocktail (see recipe here) which was conceived and popularized by Ian Fleming in his 1953 James Bond novel, Casino Royal. It is basically a dry Gin Martini with a dollop of Vodka added. Some have claimed the dollop of Vodka served the purpose of smoothing out the relatively strong flavour of Gordon’s Gin which Bond called for in the original recipe. (If you read my Gordon’s Gin Review written several years ago, I make mention of the unusually strong flavour of this dry gin.)

The Reverse Vesper is a variation upon the original cocktail, and it was introduced to me by Belvedere Global Ambassador, Ali Dedianko. Ali was in Edmonton this past Spring presenting a “Crafting the Perfect Belvedere Martini” seminar for an intimate gathering of local media. Ali featured the Reverse Vesper and even had all of us sampling the delicious bar drink at the event. We were shown that by reversing the proportions of Gin and Vodka in the original Vesper, we create the reverse cocktail. In this case, rather than using a dollop of Vodka to soothe the flavour of a sharp gin, a dollop of dry gin is used instead to add a light piny character to the traditional Vodka Martini.

Reverse Vesper with Cucumber and Lemon

When I decided to reconstruct a Reverse Vesper at home for a few of my friends, I decided to employ a premium vodka which would add its unique flavour and character to the cocktail as well. For this purpose I chose Belvedere Unfiltered Vodka which is distilled from 100 % Dankowski Rye grain grown on a Single Estate. The Belvedere Unfiltered features wonderful light chocolate tones within its rye forward flavour profile. I also decided to use a better gin than Gordon’s, in fact I used one of my favourites, No. 3 London Dry Gin. To give the martini an additional twist, I employed both a cucumber garnish (the flavour of which works very well with both the gin and the vodka), and a twist of lemon peel which pairs well with both dry gin and with the added cucumber.

All of the combined flavours within the Reverse Vesper are simply divine, and you can find my recipe page here:

The Reverse Vesper Martini

Note: Once one goes down the path of adding a little Gin to their Vodka Martini, or in the case of the Vesper, adding a little Vodka to their Gin Martini; then suddenly a whole new range of mixing possibilities opens up to those inclined to be creative. Many standard cocktails including Gimlets, Daiquiris, Fizzes, and Collins can be the subject of this type of experimentation with the aim of building new cocktails this summer. I embrace this form of creativity, and I encourage all who read my postings to do the same.

Posted in Cocktails & Recipes | Tagged: Belveder Unfiltered, Cocktails, Martini Mondays, No. 3 London Dry Gin, Reverse Vesper | 1 Comment »

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Posts Tagged ‘No. 3 London Dry Gin’

Review: No 3 London Dry Gin

Review: No 3 London Dry Gin

Summer Cocktails No 2: The Gimlet

# 86 No. 3 London Dry Gin

#86 – No. 3 London Dry Gin

Martini Monday: The Gin Martini

Gin Martini (with cucumber garnish)

Martini Monday: Reversing the Vesper

The Reverse Vesper Martini

(A Website for Spirited Reviews)

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Posts Tagged ‘No. 3 London Dry Gin’

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