New Amsterdam Gin 750mL

Hello and welcome to booze reviews!  Before you ask yes the exclamation was necessary, and yes it is gin week again.  I am the man called Justice and I will be revealing to you the gin which seems to have just been made for the casual gin and tonic.  This week we have New Amsterdam Gin.

Now when the Booze Reviews Crew sat down in the Buffalo Lounge to taste this gin, we didn’t expect much.  Buffalo Jern had picked this bottle up on our New Hampshire trip on a whim since none of us had ever tried it and it was cheap.  Needless to say we were shocked to find out this gin sporting a low shelf price packed a taste comparable to its mid shelf counterparts.

Looking at the metrics the gin scores solid average and above average scores in all areas dealing with the gin itself (taste, aroma, burn, etc.), but where it really shines is in its value.  This gin was bought at NH prices for a song, and we found its average price to be somewhere in the $13 range.  We were hard pressed to think of a mid-shelf gin that could even come close to that price.

The gin isn’t where this beverage scored all its points, however.  Its presentation was severely lacking, costing it some serious honesty points.  The bottle talks tough (as most booze does):

What they say: “Before New York was New York, it was New Amsterdam. Now, the essence of the city has been distilled into the classic New York spirit. Smooth enough to drink straight, distinctive enough to hold its own in any cocktail. Welcome to New Amsterdam.”

Though on the surface this sounds like a pretty manly claim, upon further investigation we found it to be total bullshit.  The gin claiming to be a classic New York spirit tries eliciting the idea and look of a 1950s man in a suit.  Unfortunately the gin is actually distilled and bottled in California, pretty much as far as you can get from NYC in the U.S. (barring Alaska and Hawaii).

Finally we came to mixability.  Now this gin, as I said earlier, is the perfect gin for a casual mixed drink.  The drinks produced from this bottle had a solid mid-high tier taste.  That combined with the low price for a 750 of this gin makes it perfect for that after work gin and tonic.

Time for the metrics:

 

Taste: 7.4 – “Tastes really good.” “Justice would enjoy drinking it straight.” “There’s been better gins, but it’s still very good.”

Aftertaste: 3.9 – “Like a gin slick, feels a bit slimy.” “The end is the nice gin feeling. Though the slimy feeling going down makes drinking this straight not the best experience.”

Burn/Smooth:5.8 – “Definitely a full burn, not overpowering, but a strong burn.”  “The smoothness and the burn negate each other, making it average.”

Aroma: 7.875 – “Smells like Christmas the pine tree is very well done.” “Delicious gin smell.”

Honesty: 4.7 – “Bottle is distinctive, description takes points away.” “Got the look of the time.” “It’s billed as New York yet it’s from California.”

Mixability:6.73

Martini: 6 – “Good not good enough.”

Gin and Tonic: 7.4 – “Pretty good, there’s better but not much.”

Red Baron: 6.8 – “Really good, Nom nomnom.”“Really sweet, no sense of gin.”

Value: 8.6 – “Low tier price for a mid-tier taste.” “Wow.”

Google Shop Average: $13

Website: http://www.newamsterdamspirits.com/gin

 

Reviewer Scores:

William Henri Neeve IV:7

DJ Lvl: 7

Jusice: 7.5

Buffalo Jern: 7

The Sweatta Vest: 7.5 “Dear Mother, I am a douchebag. Love, Clark University. (Unrelated)”

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Metric Score: 45/70 Metric Average: 6.43 Reviewer Average: 7.2

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Final Thoughts:

“Definitely something that would become a mainstay in the Buffalo Lounge bar.” “If you want a good quality gin, this delivers.”  “Good gin, for decent price.”