Bathtub

£27.90

Made in incredibly small quantities – between 30 and 60 bottles at a time – Master of Malt’s Bathtub Gin is made using a technique called cold compounding. Technically speaking, compound gin involves flavourings (such as botanicals) simply being added to neutral grain spirit and then filtered out before bottling. Although there are many other technicalities surrounding how it is done, ABV content etc… in layman’s terms – compound gins just infuse whereas distilled gins infuse and then distil.

Bathtub Gin -

Thankfully for Master of Malt’s Bathtub Gin, the quality of the ingredients are greatly superior. Here the gin is infused with 6 botanicals including juniper, coriander, orange peel, cinnamon, cloves and cardamom and the length of the compounding period is controlled entirely by periodic sampling at the Master of Malt HQ in Tunbridge Wells. The final spirit is bottled at 43.3% ABV and has a very slight hue caused by the infusion process.

On the nose warm citrus and juniper come to the fore. On the palate the gin has a slight viscosity to it and warm notes of waxy pine, gentle citrus and cardamom. The overall effect is smooth and quite earthy.

Bathtub Navy Strength Gin -

To us, The Bathtub Gin Navy Strength is quite a departure. While there has been differences in all of the gins within the series, they have all shared enough to be considered a family. Similar botanical contents leading to warm, soft juniper and orangey citrus notes perhaps being the linking factor between them. The Navy Strength leaves this behind and combines its high 57% ABV with spices and other botanicals that make it stand out as different to the rest. A black swan of sorts and compelling for much the same reasons. Spirity high alcohol level is apparent on the nose and so too on the palate – it certainly warms the cheeks! Cinnamon and cardamom along with other spices are obvious on the palate, as too is the juniper and citrus. These are supported by an earthier clove like note, leading to a long cinnamon and juniper finish. This definitely feels Christmassy and it’s easy to see this working in a hot toddy. The alcoholic strength adds to the punch but it’s the amount of dried spice, curried flavours that sets you back. It’s like being hit in the face by a firecracker during Diwali.