Our Brooklyn Gin review finds a US gin full of citrus that’s bang on the money (we only had $20 dollar notes for our picture, before you ask). This is a gin so good that we tried it twice (at least).
Brooklyn Gin is distilled in New York state (rather than Brooklyn itself), although its the team’s long-term dream to distil it Brooklyn itself. As you can see from our picture, this is a stunning gin bottle that’s a welcome visual addition to any gin shelf. In fact, it’s so handsome that it placed in third in our recent countdown of the 10 best gin bottles*. However, more importantly, what does this iconic American gin have to offer?
Review of Brooklyn Gin
The team behind the gin make much of their use of fresh citrus peels (check out their Instagram for some gorgeous images) and hand-cracked juniper. We think it shows. There are other botanicals at work, but this is a gin for citrus gin lovers. There’s a very pleasant citrus aroma from the bottle even before pouring, although we found it quite hard to describe fully. There’s a definite earthiness to the smell too, but it’s the citrus that’s the most obvious. Can you describe a smell as smooth? We debated that, and decided we could. It smells smooth.
The citrus hit isn’t surprising and is entirely intentional. This is an unashamedly citrusy gin, with big dollops of lemon and lime in the mix. The other botanicals include coriander, angelica and lavender. There’s also kumquat (another citrus) in there too. It’s bottled at 40%.
This is a gin that tastes exactly as it smells. However, although you get the citrus straight away, it’s not overpowering in the slightest. It’s supremely well-balanced. In fact, for a gin in which citrus botanicals feature so prominently, it’s one of the smoothest gins we’ve tasted. There are certainly other botanicals showing themselves, but none that raise their heads in a showy way. The juniper comes into that category too. It’s there – and this is most definitely a gin – but we found it more to be a part of that overall flavour profile. It’s a thoroughly enjoyable gin.
Overall, we can seriously recommend Brooklyn Gin. It really is a gin that tastes as good as its bottle looks.
How to serve Brooklyn Gin
This is a an interesting one for us. We enjoy a range of gin cocktails, as well as taking our gin neat. However, we really took to the latter here. This is one smooth gin. Serve it over some large ice cubes, with a citrus wedge (we though orange worked very well) and this is a great sipping gin. We’ll add it to our list of the best gins to drink neat when we next update it.
This doesn’t mean that you should overlook a classic gin and tonic though. We though it worked best with just a premium tonic water over ice with a slice (again, orange worked nicely).
We weren’t as taken when pairing it with the more flavoured tonics we tried. In our view it threw the balance off a little (not in an offensive way, the gin just didn’t need it). We also recommend that you don’t drown Brooklyn with tonic. Obviously it’s down to personal taste, but we generally liked it best in a 1:1 ratio.
Buy Brooklyn Gin US
Unsurprisingly, this great American gin is available in the US and Canada. See if you can get it delivered to your door within 1 hour by using Drizly. There’s a direct link below to Brooklyn Gin on Drizly.
Buy Brooklyn Gin UK
If you’ve read our Brooklyn Gin review and fancy trying it, the good news is that it’s widely available in the UK (we’ve even seen it in some supermarkets). You can buy Brooklyn Gin from Amazon in the UK and from Master of Malt.
*Footnote:
We love the Brooklyn Gin bottle but, in common with quite a few of them, it’s not a great pourer straight from the bottle. You may wish to get yourself a pourer for this one, like the ones below:
