A botanical is a term for a herb, flower, spice or root that can be used to flavour gin. It is the organic compounds contained within these botanicals that are the flavour powerhouses prized by distillers. There are hundreds of potential botanicals and it is the master distiller’s skill in combining these that gives gin its varied complexity. No two gin recipes are ever the same.
This chapter covers ten key botanicals most commonly found in gin: juniper, coriander seed, angelica root, orris root, cassia bark, cardamom, liquorice root, lavender, grains of paradise and citrus peel. Each botanical will be discussed in detail as well as its botanical name, plant family, range and the parts of the plant used in the making of gin.
Botanical name: Juniperus communis
Plant family: Cupressaceae
Range: widespread across the northern hemisphere
Parts used: the berries, or more properly ‘cones’
Details: It makes sense to start with juniper. Juniper berries are the main flavouring for gin – as you are probably aware by now!
Juniper is the low-growing, shrubby evergreen conifer on which the juniper ‘berries’ grow. Like other members of the cypress family, it has small needle-like leaves. Its favoured habitat is chalk downland, moorland, coastal dunes, rocky hillsides and the understorey of coniferous woodland.
The trees are dioecious, meaning that the conifers either have male or female flowers. This makes things a bit tricky when it comes to pollination, as the female flowers are pollinated by wind. The berries take up to two years to fully ripen from green to a beautiful deep purply-bluey-brown. When ripe, the berries are eaten by birds and so the seeds hidden within are dispersed.
Packed with bioflavonoids and antioxidants with antibacterial and antifungal properties juniper berries are truly a superfood, but only recently have the health benefits begun to be understood. There are several claims surrounding juniper: it is professed to have natural antiseptic properties, an ability to reduce blood pressure and act as an aid to digestion.
In gin production, the majority of juniper berries are sourced from around the Mediterranean, with the finest berries growing in Italy and Macedonia. Juniper berries typically form half to two-thirds of the total botanicals in a batch of gin. The dried berries (not fresh) can be crushed or left whole to macerate in neutral grain spirit to release their unique flavours before distillation.
Bite into a juniper berry and you will get a powerful complex hit of resinous, piney, lemony, bittersweet flavour. The flesh of the berry is sweet, with the real juniper kick being in the seeds. The main flavour compounds are alpha-pinene, responsible for the pine notes and limonene, which is as its name suggests, citrus. Both these compounds pop up in other common gin botanicals. The complexity of the organic compounds is what makes the creation of gin so interesting. Juniper is the Queen of Botanicals.
Botanical name: Coriandrum sativum
Plant family: Apiaceae (carrot)
Range: southern Mediterranean, Asia and North Africa
Parts used: typically the seeds, but the leaves too can be used
Details: If juniper is the Queen of Botanicals, then coriander is her Prince Regent, with the seeds (not leaves) being the second most common botanical used in the creation of gin. Coriander can form up to a third of the botanicals in a batch of gin.
From medicine to cooking, coriander has been used for millennia. Coriander seeds dating to 6000 bc have been found in a Neolithic cave in Israel; Tutankhamun was rather partial to coriander, as evidenced by the number of baskets of seeds found in his tomb.
Romans, those culinary wanderers, took coriander seed with them all over their empire, dropping it willy-nilly for archaeologists to discover hundreds of years later. Indeed, Roman gourmet foodie Apicius used the leaves and seeds in many of his recipes. Interestingly, the Greeks likened the smell of coriander leaves to that of bedbugs. The name coriander is believed to stem from the Greek for bug: koris (cori).
Coriander is an annual with a long taproot, easy to grow in warmer climes but difficult in cooler conditions. It is the seeds gin distillers are mostly interested in. Seeds vary in flavour and pungency from region to region, according to the varying levels of heat, sunshine and soil components found in different parts of the world.
Juniper and coriander share the volatile oil linalool, which goes some way to explaining why they make such good companions. Alpha-pinene (pine) and gamma-Terpinene (lemon) are also present in coriander, giving the seeds a citrusy, spicy, woody twang. Try putting a whole coriander seed in your mouth, then bite down on it as you take a sip of your favourite London Dry. You get a real spicy, lemony hit.
Botanical name: Angelica archangelica
Plant family: Apiaceae (carrot)
Range: widespread across the northern hemisphere
Parts used: mainly the roots, but the stem can also be used
Details: Angelica root is the Cinderella of the botanical theatre, yet it is a key botanical in the making of gin. And while juniper and coriander aren’t exactly the Ugly Sisters, they tend to get the invitations to the ball, while angelica root is often overlooked. Yet the vast majority of gins include every member of this trio. Joanne Moore of G&J Distillers describes them as the ‘Holy Trinity’.
The name Angelica archangelica comes from the Greek arkangelos, or archangel, perhaps because it blooms on St Michael’s (the Archangel) Day. It is said that St Michael prescribed it as a medicine for the plague.
Known since the twelfth century for its health benefits, wild angelica contains stimulating properties for the lungs and is used as a relief for lung congestion. It is also used as an aid to digestion.
Angelica is a member of the plant family that includes parsley, carrot and celery. Wild angelica is widespread in Northern Europe and is found as far north as Greenland. It prefers to grow in damp soil in the shade near running water and can grow to approximately eight feet in height. Its inconspicuous flowers form umbellifers, like umbrellas. Commercially grown in Europe, angelica from Saxony, Germany is said to be the best.
Like juniper and coriander, angelica contains alpha-Pinene. In fact, it has more than eighty different aroma compounds, including cyclopentadecanolide. This compound is present in the roots in tiny amounts, less than 1%, but even this minuscule amount gives the roots a musky aroma.
All of the plant can be used: seeds, the hollow hexagonal stems and the roots. The stems are often candied and used in confectionery and cakes. The roots are fleshy and long and have to be harvested before autumn in their first year of growth before they can be invaded by insects. They are dried soon after harvesting.
In the production of gin, the roots are believed to be a fixative for the other botanicals. The dried-out root smells rather like damp cardboard. The distilled taste is rather strange, definitely savoury or umami; it has been described as mushroom-like.
Botanical names: Iris germanica, Iris pallida, Iris florentina
Plant family: Iridaceae
Range: the Mediterranean, Morocco, China and India
Parts used: the root
Details: Orris root is one of the more expensive and popular botanicals used in the production of gin. Long prized as a fixative in the perfume industry, it is believed to have the same qualities in the distilling of gin, binding and fixing all the various flavours together.
The root, or more properly rhizome, comes from the herbaceous perennial iris plant. Once the rhizome is harvested it is dried out for up to five years in a process of oxidation before being ground down to a powder. It is this drying period that allows the essential oils contained within the root to oxidise and degrade to give the root its characteristic violet aroma. It is this powder that goes into the still.
Orris root has a delicately sweet, earthy, floral aroma and taste when distilled on its own. You would think it would be knocked out by the more boisterous botanicals. Yet despite its shy, retiring nature orris root seems to have the ability to bring all the more extrovert botanicals in gin to a harmonious conclusion. Hence its popularity among distillers.
Botanical name: Cinnamomum cassia
Plant family: Lauraceae
Range: South East Asia and China
Parts used: the bark
Details: Ever taken a sip of gin to detect an elusive spicy, clove-like flavour hovering around at the finish? Chances are you are enjoying the fragrant delights of Cinnamomum cassia. More commonly known as Chinese cinnamon.
Cassia bark is the big cousin of cinnamon: earthy and pungent compared to the lighter, brighter notes of cinnamon, and stronger with a clove-like punch. Cassia is a bit of a bruiser and comes in thick pieces of bark, difficult to grind into a powder. Cinnamon, by contrast, comes in delicate thin quills, easily ground down to a fine powder.
Chinese cassia is an evergreen shrubby tree that grows ten to fifteen metres tall. It thrives in South East Asia and China. There are several subspecies, but Cinnamomum cassia or Cinnamomum aromaticum is the most commonly used. As a member of the plant family Lauraceae, its leaves are long and pinnate like a laurel. The flowers are white with yellow stamens. But it is the bark gin distillers are interested in.
Cassia bark (and cinnamon) contain the organic compound cinnamaldehyde, which gives both of them that distinctive aroma and taste. Used as a flavouring in chewing gum, confectionery, baking and seasoning meat and fish, it is also known as an effective mosquito repellent.
Mentioned as far back as 2,700 BC in the agricultural and medicinal book Pen Ts’ao Ching, cassia was grouped as one of the ‘noble herbs’ in Chinese medicine, known for their stimulating properties. In Ebers Papyrus, the Egyptian medical papyrus, dating to 1,550 BC cassia also gets a mention.
Modern medicine, however, doesn’t recognise any health benefits of taking cinnamon or cassia supplements. Ingested in large amounts cassia can actually be quite dangerous. It contains a substance called coumarin which can cause liver damage, but this would have to be taken in excessive amounts.
Cassia is added to the gin still as crushed pieces. It provides a nice spicy, warming, earthy finish to gin and when used adds complexity and dimension to the flavour profile.
Botanical name: Elettaria cardamomum
Plant family: Zingiberaceae
Range: widespread, from India and Nepal to Vietnam, Cambodia, Thailand, Central America and Tanzania
Parts used: the seeds and seedpods
Details: Once tasted, cardamom is never forgotten and deserves its reputation as being the Queen of Spices. Cardamom is quoted as being the third most expensive spice in the world after saffron and vanilla, due to its labour-intensive harvesting. Every pod is picked by hand.
The cousin of cardamom is Elettaria ensal or Wild Sri Lankan cardamom. But this is chemically different from true cardamom. Black cardamom, Amomum subulatum, a native of northeastern India, is different again. It has a coarser smoky aroma and flavour.
Once traded along the Spice Route, cardamom has long been prized. Used as a perfume by the Greeks and Romans, it rates a mention in fourth century bc Sanskrit texts where it was described as being given as an offering. It was also taken by the Vikings to Scandinavia, where it is still very popular, particularly as a flavouring in baking. Indeed, it is still used in Scandinavian gingerbread today.
Until 1980 India was the world’s largest grower of cardamom, where it originated along the Malabar Coast, or the Western Ghats, a hilly region known as the Cardamom Hills. Today it also grows in Nepal, Sri Lanka, Vietnam, Cambodia, Thailand, Tanzania and Central America, where Guatemala has taken the lead.
Cardamom is a clump-forming herbaceous perennial with long dagger-like leaves that grow from rhizomes to up to six metres in height. Its habitat is the forest floor and to mimic this, growers often intercrop it with tea, betel nut palms or black pepper. It flowers year round with white to lilac flower spikes that grow up to a metre long and are pollinated by insects. The ridged green torpedo-shaped pods, the carriers, contain the black seeds, where most of the aroma and flavour is to be found. The pods are harvested every three to five weeks when ripe and before they have the chance to split and spill their precious cargo. Drying in a curing room, in a method known as flue curing, keeps the green colour of the pods.
The seed oil has antibacterial properties, which have been used to preserve meat. It is also frequently used in curry and to flavour masala chai, and to flavour the Arabic drink of gahwa, a cardamom-spiced coffee. Used in Ayurvedic medicine, cardamom has a whole host of uses: commonly used to treat stomach ailments, asthma, colds, sore throats, bronchitis, heart problems, stress, overwork, depression, eyesight problems, as a skin conditioner and for bad breath.
The aroma is a spicy floral herbal bergamot with hints of lavender and lime and in gin it has a spicy perfumed taste that you will notice is quite distinctive, once your taste buds are attuned.
Botanical name: Glycyrrhiza glabra
Plant family: Leguminosae
Range: widespread across the Middle East and southeastern Europe
Parts used: the root
Details: Surprisingly, liquorice is a member of the pea family. The botanical name comes from the Greek ‘glukus’ and ‘rhiza’, meaning ‘sweet root’. And this would sum up this plant with its aniseedflavoured roots.
Grown in the UK since the sixteenth century, it was cultivated by Dominican monks in the town of Pontefract, home of Pontefract cakes, forerunners of Liquorice Allsorts. But the Egyptians were already using it centuries earlier to make a kind of tea from the leaves to cure many ailments. Liquorice root is said to have many medicinal benefits, including the anti-inflammatory ability to soothe an upset stomach.
Popular today as a sweet flavouring in the Netherlands, it is eaten as zoute drop or salty liquorice. The bare unadulterated root of liquorice is chewed in Italy, France and Spain.
The plant grows to over three feet tall, but it is the root gin distillers are interested in for its aniseed flavour, due to the organic compound anethole. The rhizomes are harvested every three to five years then dried before being crushed to a powder or chopped into small pieces.
Distilled with a light hand in gin liquorice root can add weight and a certain spiciness. Too much and you have a gin that tastes of the sweets liquorice torpedoes.
Botanical name: Lavandula angustifolia (English lavender)
Plant family: Lamiaceae
Range: Europe, China and southeast India
Parts used: the flowers
Details: Easy to grow and drought tolerant, lavender is a decorative woody shrub grown for its fragrant violet-coloured flowers. The plant is found widespread across Europe, particularly favouring the Mediterranean sunshine. As a member of the mint family, lavender also has its culinary uses, most commonly in baking. It is the flowers most bakers and cooks are interested in, not the leaves.
This versatile flower is also used for its anti-inflammatory and antiseptic properties in the commercial production of lavender oil, as well as for its aromatic properties in perfuming bath products, and it has long been believed that the lavender fragrance has calming qualities. Lavender honey is also sought after.
Lavender might seem like a strange botanical to find in gin, but its flowers are popular among distillers for their floral yet slightly resinous and camphor-like flavour with a hint of citrus. Used with care, it adds complexity and ‘lifts’ the gin
Botanical name: Aframomum melegueta
Plant family: Zingiberaceae
Range: West Africa
Parts used: the seeds
Details: A perennial herb and part of the ginger family, the Aframomum melegueta favours swampy marsh-like areas and can grow to 1.5 metres tall. It has long, narrow palm-like leaves and purple flowers that go on to form fruits containing the glossy brown little seeds known as grains of paradise. The seeds go by a number of names, with the most common being Guinea pepper, which gives some indication of the aromatic peppery nature of these seeds.
In the fourteenth and fifteenth centuries, the seeds were used as a cheap substitute for the more expensive black pepper. Traders named them grains of paradise to bump up their value, claiming they were grown in the Garden of Eden. Today the roles of the two spices have been reversed and black pepper is much more inexpensive.
In African folk medicine, these little seeds are used both as an anti-inflammatory cure for stomach problems and as an aphrodisiac. The flavour is peppery but not as coarse or strong as black pepper, pleasantly floral and with a soft citrus taste. Not surprisingly, these seeds are widely used in cooking where they are sometimes referred to as ‘gourmet pepper’.
In gin, they impart a sophisticated spicy flavour that complements the citrus elements in juniper very well, adding complexity to the botanical profile.
Botanical names: many Citrus species
Plant family: Rutaceae
Range: widespread, tropical and sub-tropical, the Mediterranean
Parts used: mainly the peel
Details: Citrus covers a wide range of botanicals used in the making of gin including sweet and bitter orange, lemon, lime, lime leaves, grapefruit, pomelo, yuzu and kumquat and all the variations in between.
Of all the botanicals citrus is the first to emerge from the still bright and zingy, adding ‘lift’ to the gin. When tasting gin, if there is citrus present you will generally taste this first as it adds a top note to any gin.
The peel is most commonly used, but some gins use the whole fruit. Most of the essential oils are contained in the zest or peel. Citrus is usually added last to the still and sometimes not macerated at all but steamed in a vapour basket above the neutral grain spirit as it is heated.
Many distillers use citrus to a greater or lesser extent in their creations and citrus garnishes are tried and tested as a complement to gin and tonic.
Gruesome as it sounds, gin has a surprising link with the Black Death.
AD 1348~1351 ~ In ad 1348 the Black Death arrived in the Low Countries and rapidly spread to the rest of Europe. A combination of bubonic plague, caused by infected ~ea bites; pneumonic plague, transferred from person to person in saliva by coughing or sneezing; and septicaemic plague devasted the population of Europe. All forms of the plague caused neurological symptoms as the plague bacteria attacked the central nervous system, resulting in what was known as the Danse Macabre or Dance of Death.
To ward off the ‘evil humours’ juniper wood was burned in people’s homes (to little effect). Plague doctors wore bizarre plague masks with beak-like extensions packed with herbs and juniper berries to protect them from inhaling infectious vapours from their patients. Juniper cordials or tonics were also believed to be a prophylactic against catching the plague.
It wasn’t long, however, before juniper tonics stopped being medicinal and became recreational.