Hendrick’s Gin has established a reputation for being curious and intriguing, their Kanaracuni edition certainly lives up to the reputation.
It all started with a mysterious delivery. Inside the box was a small hessian bag, and inside the bag was a small gourd and inside the gourd was a scroll with a story of the jungle. A story of Master Distiller Lesley Gracie travelling to the Amazon to find a new botanical for Hendrick’s and an invitation to come to the Royal Botanic Gardens to try it. There wasn’t even a date on the invitation. Very curious and intriguing.
So what’s the story here? Basically Gracie and Hendrick’s global brand ambassador (I do believe it is an actual job to travel the world telling people how good gin is. If anyone would like to offer me one of these jobs…) David Piper travelled to Venezuelan jungle to find something new and exciting to add to an extremely limited run of gin. They found Scorpion’s Tail. Rather than have me blather on, this short video explains their adventure, or the full eight minute one below goes into much more detail.
PROCESS
Gracie look a small copper still with her and made eight litres of scorpion tail distillate. This was mixed with regular Hendrick’s Gin to make around 300 litres of Kanaracuni gin.
BOTANICALS
Juniper
Yarrow
Elderflower
Angelica root
Orange peel
Caraway
Coriander
Chamomile
Cubeb berry
Orris root
Lemon
Rose
Cucumber
Scorpion’s tail
TASTING NOTES
This gin is very sweetly scented and the floral notes are continued on the palate. There’s just a touch of warm spice, about the intensity of peppermint, but with a different flavour that hints to aniseed. Compared to the regular Hendrick’s Gin it has a very fresh flavour of leafy green; herbaceous and almost vegetal. Very much a successful experiment.
Unfortunately gin’s history is very mixed up with colonialism. Because of this history I’m particularly aware of colonialist tropes in gin marketing. There were just a few moments throughout the evening that felt a bit awkward in this context, as much as I enjoyed the gin.
WHERE TO BUY
Sorry folks, you can’t buy it. There were only those 300 litres made, which were served to bar tenders and gin wankers like me.
Disclaimer I attended this event as a guest of Hendrick’s Gin and their PR firm. While I appreciate the generosity of this gift, my appreciation has not influenced this article.