Tasting Notes: Big Seven (July Subscriptions)
Big Seven with July’s Mystery Miniature’s contents: Dolin Dry Vermouth
Ahoy shipmates,
For this month, I steered my trusty vessel through the North Sea before docking at Clacton-on-Sea and being taken by carriage to Dunmow in Essex. The Charles and Mike Distillery have been going for barely a year but their gins have already managed to amass evangelistic zeal from gin lovers. Big Seven, so named after the number of botanicals contained within and produced using copper stills, is their flagship gin of which they are rightly proud.
Lucky, secret and magnificent, no number has fascinated and enchanted man more than seven. It has significance in most religions. It’s a prime number, it’s the number of world wonders, Christian virtues, and Samurai. According to a groundbreaking piece of psychological research in 1954, seven is also the average number of items in a group most people can store in their short-term memory, which partly explains its common appearances in culture and self-help lists.
According to biblical scholars, seven represents perfection, something which you may agree with when you try Big Seven. So what can you expect?
On the nose, I got an earthy juniper aroma alongside a clean citrus hit. On the palate there’s more prominent citrus notes from the grapefruit peel and lemongrass but it’s the finish that really stands out with Big Seven. It tingles as it goes down, almost leaving a numbness. I presume this is because of the eucalyptus-like properties of bay leaf but it’s accompanied by the floral taste of chamomile, I’ve never noticed a gin that has quite the finish as Big Seven.. Big Seven is complex enough that you can pick out the botanicals but is also well balanced enough to taste like a classic London Dry.
If you’re trying to pick out those botanicals, this guide might help. I’ve been wanting to talk to you about identifying botanicals and since Big Seven only uses five of what I’d call classic gin botanicals I thought this would be a good place to start as there’s only seven to look out for.
Juniper: if you’ve ever tasted juniper, and I’m sure most of you have as I’ve included it as a garnish on a few occasions, you’ll know it has a musty taste which translated most often as an earthy flavour in your gin
Grapefruit Peel: this is where you’ll pick up the ‘fresh’ notes in a gin. It’s fragrant and citrus but also tangy
Cassia Bark: cassia is another botanical that is very popular. It brings woody dry notes and is a less sweet version of cinnamon.
Bay Leaf: this has sharp and bitter notes with a slightly menthol edge.
Angelica Root: angelica is one of the most common botanicals you’ll find in gin. Like cassia it brings a woody, musky element. The woody elements are so commonplace in gin they can be harder to pick out - think of them as foundation botanicals.
The botanicals it uses that are slightly more unusual are:
Lemongrass: an aromatic citrus taste. Lemongrass is famously used a lot in Thai cuisine and over-used in processed foods that are meant to taste like Thai food.
Chamomile: used to add floral top notes.
As a garnish this month, I’ve included a lemon. The humble unassuming lemon watching from your fruit bowl as you’ve been putting rose petals and juniper berries in your drink biding his time, waiting for his chance to return -to shake you out of your modern ways. He’s (yes, ‘he’ - I’ve only included male lemons, easier to catch and tame) included for two reasons. Firstly because he’ll bring out the gin’s natural citrus taste in a gin and tonic, for which you can use either the plain tonics or the elderflower tonic I’ve included. Secondly because you’ll need it when trying the mystery miniature which isn’t a gin, but a cocktail ingredient - Dolin Dry Vermouth, from the Alpine village of Chambery in South East France.
I will leave you to work your way through the seven deadly sins. Enjoy.
Love and barnacles
The Captain