If we had a bank of mottos here at HBR one of them would be ‘what goes in the bottle is the most important part.’ This is because we were raised on the values of ‘it’s what’s inside that counts’. However it’s hard to knock a gin when the Gentlemanly look is taken to the extreme of giving a bottle a hat.
The additional accessory as well is a fun take here, but we still have to judge the contents not the context. Which is rough here. This may look like an Englishman’s gin, but it’s a WW1 Englishman with shellshock needing something to take the edge off. IF that’s what you are looking for a (or a nice G&T) and you want some fun toys – sure go ahead we won’t mind.
What they Say: “Broker’s Gin is made in a 200-year-old gin distillery outside London, using a traditional copper pot-still. The raw ingredients are triple-distilled pure grain spirit made from English wheat, and ten natural botanicals (herbs, spices and fruit). The botanicals are steeped for 24 hours in the pure grain spirit, which is then distilled for a fifth time.”
Taste: 5.5 – That starts out a little rough, but overall what you would expect from a gin.
Aftertaste: 3.5 – The issue is it gets rougher. It’s not slick or off, but if you need a reminder of what gin is – it’s kind enough to get to the very blunt point.
Burn/Smooth: 3.5 – As you would expect that roughness comes from both the side of taste and burn.
Aroma: 7.0 – Once again we are met with a smell that should be the standard, but since the actual average is lower the points are increased. This isn’t something fantastic or mind-blowing, but it’s what a London Dry should smell like.
Honesty: 7.0 – This is conflicting. One the one hand the text is perfect, no prefunctonary garbage, and they even explain what a botanical is to a layman. The text and bottle design is classic British gin, and you even get a fun novelty hat. Where this breaks down is the extras, which we won’t fully take points on as it’s possible you’d not get them. The first is they give you a pour spout that has the hat built in – which is adorable. The second and this is the issue – is the big bold letters ‘World’s Best Gin” which is not true. Sure it won a competition – but nobody believes that racket. All that in mind though this still does fairly well here despite the glaring wart.
Mixability: 6.75
Martini: 6.0 – Supposedly one of the categories it won was best Martini. Sure if the competition was Gordon’s – it deserves that. A world class martini those this is not.
Gin and Tonic: 7.5 – That is actually a really good gin and tonic – not award winning, but damn good.
Value: 6.5 – We will consider the hat extra because both the spout and non-spout version will likely be used long after the gin has left. The main reason for points though is that because of the G&T this gin will certainly see use in the lounge. Sure every day of the week we’d recommend getting a handle of New Amsterdam for the same price or less, but not bad.
Google Shop Average: $21
Website: http://www.brokersgin.com/
Reviewer Scores:
BuffaloJern: 6.0
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Metric Score: 39.75/70 |+| Metric Average: 5.68 |+| Reviewer Average: 6.0
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Final Thoughts: This reminds us a bit of the recent Gin Lane in that it’s very ‘gin-like’ but that it has all these small (or large) issues that take it from being great to just being slightly par. Hopefully in the near future we can find that gin that makes us go ‘wow’ because of the quality instead of the power or tchotchke’s.
Looking through your gin reviews, it seems like you just don’t really like gin that much. Would that be fair to say? The only one I’ve seen so far that you gave a thoroughly positive for is Monkey 47, which is very contemporary and veers pretty far from the traditional London Dry style. Are there other examples of gins you think of as excellent?