Category Archives: Gin

Bloom is a real enigma: Born from the distiller of one of the world’s first London Dry gins — parent company Greenall’s celebrates its 250th anniversary this year and is the producer of Bombay and Bombay Sapphire for Bacardi — Bloom is a brand new gin with a modern twist. It is designed for women, by a woman.

Joanne Moore is the world’s only female master gin distiller, and after 15 years working her way up the ranks at Greenall’s, she’s finally been given her own empty bottle to fill.

It should have happened a lot sooner, because Bloom — female-focused or not — is one of the best gins on the market today.

Bloom is part tradition, part newfangled innovation, and Moore took me through a private tasting of the spirit, the seven ingredients that make up its infusion, each paired with a single-ingredient distillate, which show how different (or similar) an infusion can taste vs. the aromatic that goes into it.

Bloom is distilled from English wheat, and the infusions start with Tuscan juniper, Moroccan coriander, and angelica — all traditional gin flavoring agents. She then goes wild, adding Indonesian cubebs (a member of the pepper family), chamomile flowers, honeysuckle, and Chinese pomelo (part of the grapefruit family). The final spirit is bottled at 80 proof.

Results: Amazing. Bloom had been previously described to me as “floral,” but unlike, say, Nolet’s, which is full of perfumy rose petals, Bloom is floral only in the sense of standing in a rain-soaked meadow full of wildflowers. Honeysuckle and chamomile are not heavy aromas, and they do not overpower the rest of the aromatics here. In fact, it’s citrus that comes on the strongest — driven by that pomelo and possibly the fruitier characters in the two floral ingredients. But best of all is how perfectly these seven ingredients all come together: Bloom is balanced, smooth, and easy to sip straight, even at room temperature. Call me a girl if you want: I love this gin.

Bloom officially launches today in San Francisco only, then spreads across California and beyond.

A / about $40 / bloomgin.com

You’ll see the hat first: Broker’s Gin has a fun little bit of surprise & delight: A bowler hat affixed to the lid of the bottle, a hat which will certainly someday end up on the head of my daughter’s Ken doll. It is too manly for Barbie.

But Broker’s is hardly a gimmick in search of a semi-drunk buyer looking for kitsch. It’s a solid and enjoyable gin — one of few which is really quite tolerable on its own, and at room temperature at that.

Distilled in England and bottled at a hearty 94 proof (an 80 proof version is also available), Broker’s doesn’t enumerate its botanicals but admits to a total of 10, imported from three continents.

Whatever they’ve done, it works. You get incredible flavors of lemon oil, clover, honey, cardamon, anise,  and hints of licorice, with juniper bringing up the rear. The balance is amazing: No overwhelming evergreen to punch you in the face, just lots of citrus intercut with herbs and spices galore. Pleasantly both sweet and tart, you’ll find zero bite: Broker’s leaves you instead with a lengthy and warming finish. It’s almost impossible to believe this is 94 proof.

At under $20 a bottle it’s one of the best bargains in gin going. And, in case I failed to mention it: They throw in a free bowler hat! Buy now!

A / $19 / brokersgin.com