Evoke the scent of the Southern Sassafras

We at The Craft Drinks Corp. claim that we aim brining new, unique and hand crafted spirits to our customers' attention. We keep our promises! Meet a truly unique and artisan spirit from Tasmania.

Evoke is the world's first Sassafras spirit distilled in the ancient wilderness of Far South Tasmania at the historic Bakehouse Distillery in Dover by Martin Wohlgemuth

Evoke is a 40% ABV distillate based on 100% Australian sugar cane and a set of native Tasmanian botanicals.

As mentioned earlier, Southern Sassafras (or Atherosperma moschatum) is the predominant botanical in the spirit. Also known as the Blackheart Sassafras the tree is common to the southern States of Australia and may be found in Tasmania, Victoria and South East parts of New South Wales.

The use of Southern Sassafras with other Tasmanian native botanicals and the highest quality Roaring Forties rain water gives Evoke a clean citrus and floral nose and citrus and herbaceous palate with a hint of anise.

Mix Evoke with tonic and add some rosemary or enjoy it with soda water to experience its complexity.

Evoke is available in 700ml and 200ml bottles for your convenience.

Less is More

There are heaps of mainstream and hand-made gins in the market and they are all different. Some of them may have only 4 botanicals in the recipe some of them may have 10 times more ingredients than those with 4. What is the golden ration when we are talking about gin? I would say it is closer to the first figure, closer to 4 rather than to 40.

Meet Roots Marlborough Dry Gin from one of the most recognisable wine regions of New Zealand.

6 core botanicals are used to create the gin . One out of those, the juniper is the only one sourced from Macedonia and the rest were hand harvested in New Zealand.

47 (!) is the number of ingredients or botanicals, which is more correct, that may be used to make a gin too. I'm not going to mention the particular brand. I bet there are gins with higher numbers of botanicals used to create a wow effect for marketing purposes.

Is it alright when you experience endless spectre of tones and tastes in a single product? Depends.

I would not try something that complicated more than once because I won't be able to identify each of those ingredients individually any way.

Also, such beverages become a nightmare for bartenders as they can't achieve the desired profile of their cocktails.

In this case, I would rather go for a less overloaded gin but with a better balanced recipe that is generous to your nose and does not make mess on you palate.

Let's get back to today's hero. Roots Marlborough Dry Gin is a small batch hand crafted gin distilled with use of New Zealand famous whey spirit. You may know it from Broken Shed vodka and which is well known for containing no methanol compared to the grain one. It is also free from gluten.

The botanicals are macerated in the whey spirit for 24 hours and than distilled in a 200 litre bespoke made distillery with no filtration afterwards. So you could notice your gin go slightly cloudy if left on ice for long periods or store your bottle in the fridge, this is because of the level of aromatic oils retaining in the gin.

As a result of all that, you have a very smooth and aromatic nose with juniper in the front and kawakawa fruit and gorse coming after. The palate is complex with again juniper coming forward and followed by grapefruit and hop zest.

Smokey smoked botanicals

Botanic Australis Dry Gin from Mt Uncle Distillery has been in the market since 2012 and was recognised by gin lovers across Australia and overseas. The master distiller was inspired by the classic London dry gin recipe but decided to substitute the original ingredients with Australian native botanicals. Most of those ingredients are being harvested locally in the Far North Queensland where the distillery is situated.

The Botanic Australis Dry Gin features a very refreshing and crisp nose with dominating juniper and anise coming first and eucalyptus kicking off next. On the palate, we have peppermint gum, river mint conveying refreshing tones and followed by anise myrtle in the dry finish.

However, the head distiller kept experimenting with now his own recipe and decided to add a unique feature to it. Meet Australia's first smoked gin the "Bushfire Smoked" Botanic Australis Gin! The gin where the 14 botanicals that we are already familiar with from well known Botanic Australis Dry Gin were smoked with Iron Bark before the 36-hour long maceration.

The smoked botanicals create and convey woody, smoky and earthy tones to the gin's palate. Those tones and strong on the nose too and are adorned with a sweet hints of maple.

Try Botanic Australis "Bushfire Smoked" gin on the rocks or with your favourite mixer by an open fire and feel the smoky aroma of the gin that should deepen your enjoyment of your outdoor time with your family or friends and the drink.

Cheers!