Angel Heart Beverages, Tincture Gin
I’m a big fan of the Angel Heart Beverages and was very excited to try out their latest gin, Tincture.
Angel Heart Beverages is certainly one of the more creative distilleries in the country. Their award-winning Ginifer Chilli is certainly unique – and one of my personal favourites, and they visit Faraday Muthi Market to source a few unique flavours too.
Interestingly, Tincture is described on the bottle as being ‘The Alchemists Gin’. This conjures up images from the dark ages where caped men and women are stooped over a poorly-lit work bench performing heretical experiments with unusual and exotic ingredients.
The bottle also breaks from the Angel Heart Beverages tradition as it is 500ml and not the usual 750ml. The labelling is full of alchemist symbols and the gin itself has an interesting pale yellow colour.
The art of small-batch craft gin
Jacqueline Grobler, owner of Angel Heart Beverages, says, “Tincture is a super-small-batch gin using scarce and complex botanicals.”
Before I even took a whiff, I knew this gin was going to be something very different to the main stream gins that are found at bottle stores and fashionable gin bars. This is not a gin to casually mix with a generous portion of tonic and a slice of lemon.
I avoided reading the label or any literature before the tasting. I went through the process of sampling the raw spirit and then with ice. The flavours are rather complex, but it was liquorice that came through most strongly on the nose and the palette.
Interestingly, there is no complete description of the botanicals in this gin. The labelling simply says that Tincture is infused with seasonal botanicals only available from the landscape of Southern Africa.
It also says that colour and taste may vary due to the aging and oxidisation process.
I spent much time experimenting with mixes and flavourants trying to find the perfect concoction. Because of the complexity of this gin, it took a while. Perhaps this is Jacqueline’s intention, as, not unlike an alchemist, I had a table full of herbs, fruits and tonics laid out before me performing various experiments.
In the end, I found that my favourite mix was simply soda water, ice and an olive. Delicious!
To find out more about Angel Heart Beverages and their other offerings, visit www.ahbev.com.
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