Making Hendrick's Gin

At Tales of the Cocktail Vancouver, I stopped in to the Hendrick's Gin tasting room. I've been to about 70 million Hendrick's events, but in this one I first learned how the gin is made. 

It turns out that Hendrick's is the product of two different stills. Botanicals are infused into the spirit during distillation in different ways depending on the still.

 

 

The botanicals go into the column in the still on the left, whereas they are infused into the spirit directly in the pot in the still on the right.

The two distillates are mixed and rose and cucumber essences are added. This makes a gin concentrate. Like many other brands of gin, this concentrate is then diluted both with water and neutral spirit to bring it to the proper bottling strength.

We were able to try each of the distillates, smell the essences, and taste the concentrate.

 

 

And then it was time for drinks.   

 

 

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