Broker’s London Dry Gin is a brand that is well recognised by the bottle with a bowler hat.
Andy Dawson of Broker’s London Dry Gin – Photo © Cocktails & Bars
If you’re familiar with Broker’s Gin, you’d easily recognise the bottle with a bowler hat and the label with an English gentleman, likely to be a broker, dressed in a suit and a hat.
The branding is a reflection of an image of London and pays homage to the only spirit that historically originated in England and was invented in Holland.
Broker’s Gin is featured in this Top 10 Gins article and was created by brothers Martin and Andy Dawson in the late 1990s. Andy Dawson recently visited Sydney and presented a masterclass at Sydney small bar, Since I Left You for trade and media guests.
According to Andy Dawson, three factors make a gin stand out, the choice of base spirit, the choice of botanicals and the method of getting the flavour into the spirit.
Broker’s London Dry Gin is made from a wheat base and uses ten botanicals distilled in a pot still: juniper, coriander seed, cinnamon, cassia bark, liquorice, orris root, orange peel, lemon peel, angelica root and nutmeg. The gin is made in a 200 year old distillery outside of London near Birmingham, a site where Martin Miller’s gin and other spirits are distilled.
Broker’s 40% ABV is rich and creamy with citrus and fruit peel on the nose, smooth on the palate with spicy juniper and citrus fruit. Broker’s 47% ABV has enhanced citrus, coriander and orris root aromas with a creamy texture on the palate and a long semi sweet finish. It’s “rich, full-bodied, robust”. Incidentally, 47% ABV was deemed to be the optimum strength for gin to give an enhanced aroma and a lot of heat.
Perhaps the Winston Churchill Martini sums up Broker’s gin best. 120 ml of Broker’s Gin, shaken over ice and poured into a chilled Martini glass “while looking at the vermouth bottle on the other side of the room”. A twist of lime or an olive is a recommended garnish, or if you’re adventurous, an olive stuffed with a creamy blue cheese as Andy Dawson recommends.
This article was originally published on June 13, 2014 on our sister website Gourmantic.
