Empress Gin: A Colorful Blast From The Past
Over a decade ago, The Greatest Wife In The World and I embarked on a trip that, in my mind, would not fail to disappoint. We flew out to Seattle to introduce ourselves to the city and depart for a cruise to Alaska, stopping at various points along the northwestern Pacific coastline. While I would love to spend time professing my love for Seattle's food and beverage scene or the amazing sights of Alaska, I am actually going to fill you in on a port visit that we did not spend a ton of time in: Victoria, British Columbia.
You see, one of the port excursions involved a trip to the Fairmont Empress Hotel to have tea, an experience it has provided since 1908. It sounded like a good way to get a change of scenery, so we were in. We were seated at a table with an older couple from Texas, and let me tell you...it was a great time. Sitting in a fancy room, sipping tea (we had a choice of many types) and nibbling finger sandwiches and appetizers...some high class all the way! We also took home the Fairmont's Signature black loose tea blend. Little did I know that here in the little New England village where we call home, I would recently encounter this tea again, only not in the form that I would have expected.
I stopped by Divine Wine and noticed a bottle on the counter behind the register where we keep special orders. I asked the boss what it was, and he handed it to me. What the hell was this? The liquid inside was a striking blue-purple hue (not a synthetic Windex blue or a Welch's grape juice purple). Is this some gimmicky liqueur? Then I read the label: "Empress 1908 Gin."
I was taken aback to find out this was a gin. Then I looked in greater detail: "Distilled and bottled by Victoria Distillers, Victoria, British Columbia." I asked the boss who found this/knows about this/where did it come from? It turns out a customer absolutely swears by this gin and asked if we could get it...so we did. Then I start reading the mini-pamphlet around the bottle's neck and realize that the Empress 1908 Gin takes its name from the Empress Tea blend we sampled from the Fairmont hotel. The tea is one of the eight organic botanicals used in producing the gin. How about that?
But what about the color? Well, that comes from this little beauty right here:
Image credit: Wild Hibiscus Flower Company
This is the butterfly pea flower. This is THE ingredient that is infused into the gin to make that color that almost doesn't seem to exist in nature, and yet...it does. I have to admit, I am all for a little clever marketing with fancy colors if it is not some artificial garbage standing in the way of a good spirit.
So the timing was such that I was able to pick this up for The Greatest Wife In The World's birthday gift and we recently gave the Empress 1908 Gin a whirl. We kept it very simple with the two ingredients below (with ice and a small squeeze of lime):
Let me tell you...this is some good stuff. Flavor-packed and grapefruit-forward, the Empress has plenty of juniper to appease the traditional gin drinker, but some ginger and cinnamon (each is part of the botanical recipe) to provide something a little different. It's a fragrant gin where the grapefruit definitely doesn't quit...a slice of grapefruit would be a fine garnish. The addition of citrus or tonic will also change the color to different shades of purple or pink depending on how much of those ingredients you add to the cocktail. From a flavor standpoint, I think the most impressive part is the use of corn-derived base spirit; a lot of corn-based spirits can have a full, sweet flavor that I would have imagined could interfere with the floral and spicy botanicals, but it was lighter and more refreshing than I expected and no perceptible sweetness (side note: wheat-based spirits tend to give you a soft, clean base that really allows the botanicals to shine through clearly).
The Empress is one you can have a lot of fun experimenting with on your own, but this is a really nice Mother's Day gift (assuming Mom likes her gin). This will cost you around $40 for a 750mL bottle. Get to know more about Empress Gin here. This is absolutely worth it if you can find it in your market. If not...have your retailers pester their distributors to get it on board.