Sir Edmond Gin is a smooth Dutch gin infused with vanilla pods from Réunion Island. Bottled at 40%, there are six botanicals in Sir Edmond Gin. We’ll come to that vanilla in a moment, but also hard at work are juniper, cinnamon, ginger, cardamom and angelica root. Many gin drinkers will, of course, be familiar with these five. It’s a line up that promises some spice, and an intriguing backdrop to the vanilla.
The distillation process sees all but the vanilla distilled first in a pot still. That Réunion vanilla is then chopped up and left to infuse with it for a few weeks before being filtered prior to bottling.
Sir Edmond Gin is named after Edmond Albius. And his is a fascinating story. Vanilla beans are native to Mexico, and it wasn’t until Albius invented a method for hand-pollinating vanilla that it could be cultivated successfully elsewhere. Born into slavery in the French colony of Réunion, his technique led to that island becoming the largest producer of vanilla. That title now goes to the larger island of Madagascar, to the west of Réunion, but Albius’ method of pollination is still used today.
Sir Edmond Gin review
Opening the bottle brings an immediate hit of that vanilla. There’s a definite sweetness on the nose, although it’s not overwhelming. To be totally frank though, our collective fear at this point was that this would be a bit of what we always call (unscientifically!) a “schnappsy gin”; a gin that gets caught up in a sweet ‘feature botanical’ that dominates the taste.
However, taking a neat sip blew those fears away. In fact, it wasn’t at all what any of us expected. The vanilla is certainly there on tasting but, importantly, it works supremely well in tandem with the juniper. There’s a hint of warmth too, and a little of that spice too. However, the dominant view was that this is a really smooth gin.
There’s a very pleasant hint of colour in your glass too. Our picture probably doesn’t do it justice, but those vanilla pods have imparted a subtle colour change to this gin whilst infusing.
How to serve Sir Edmond Gin
You could drink this gin neat, but we found it to be very versatile. Two particular favourites stood our as preferred serves. Pop Sir Edmond Gin in with a good quality tonic over ice, add a slice of grapefruit, and you have an absolute winner. It’s one to add to the next update of our list of great gins that go well with grapefruit. That grapefruit garnish just cuts beautifully through the smooth sweetness of the vanilla.
Our other serving suggestion is actually a little different. We garnished our Sir Edmond gin and tonic with freshly cut strawberries and a few sprigs of mint. On a summer’s night this was a refreshing treat that went down very well!
Sir Edmond is a delight of a gin, with a fresh and smooth taste that brings out the best of that magical vanilla.
Where to buy Sir Edmond Gin
Prices do nudge the £40 mark for a bottle of Sir Edmond Gin, but this is a quality product. It’s readily available, and you can buy it in the UK from Amazon via the link below, or here from Master of Malt.
Disclosure
We are very grateful to have been gifted the bottle of Sir Edmond Gin that features in this review. However, we have not received any direct payment for this article otherwise. This website never features gins that we feel that we can’t recommend, but we are very happy to recommend Sir Edmond. We enjoyed it, and we hope you do too. We’d love to hear what you think, either by posting a comment below or by emailing us at contact@whichgin.com. Cheers! Andy, Founder, whichgin.com
