Consider the Jaffa cake. A timeless treat. Now, if something is delicious, chances are someone will make a gin with it, and that’s exactly what has happened here. Jaffa Cake Gin is distilled with oranges, fresh orange peel, cocoa powder and Jaffa cakes. Actual Jaffa cakes. As in “Right, we could eat these yummy Jaffa cakes, or we could put the Jaffa cakes in this vacuum still and make Jaffa Cake Gin.” It’s that kind of situation. The result is just like you’d expect - full-on Jaffa cake tastiness built around a distinctive base of crisp juniper. The label claims it’ll make the best Negroni mankind has ever seen, but we’ll let you be the judge of that one - though you will get top marks if you stick a Jaffa cake on your glass like a citrus wheel garnish.
Nose: Zingy orange (marmalade-esque) is swiftly overtaken by a rich and earthy chocolate undertone. Hints of vanilla-rich cake and just a touch of almondy-goodness. A solid backbone of juniper brings up the rear.
Palate: Jaffa cakes! Perhaps not surprising, but the resemblance is uncanny. Nice balance and great poise. The flavour never oversteps the mark - this is still resolutely 'a gin'. Delicately sweet - not sickly or in any way liqueur-like.
Finish: The orange-y palate fades into unctuous hot cocoa, and a note of bitter dark chocolate remains to the last, ably shored up by the piney tang from the juniper.
Overall: Does what it says on the tin, this one. Nicely integrated, and extremely crowd-pleasing.