first one stretched the flavor out to a month. The second one got him to three months. When a third fixative was added to the other two and his gin retained tea character for nine months, he felt he was on the right track. It also cemented his belief that the fixative effect was real. To those who say otherwise, Rowland offers a simple reply, “Make an Earl Grey tea and watch the character dissipate.”
MAKING GIN TEA
Making a good cup of tea and distilling a good spirit have a couple things in common. Proper temperature control is one. However, the temperatures that each process demands seem mutually exclusive. “Vapor [infusion] is challenging to make with tea… cause the tea character brews at about 200 to 212 degrees F,” Rowland said. “So if you’re doing the tea in a basket for vapor, you’re at 176. Maybe white teas or green teas, but black teas you need the heat.” So instead Rowland put all of the botanicals,
tea included, in the still when distillation takes place. This heating of the botanicals had another benefit. “Once you start to get to 200 degrees F you get the Maillard reaction.” This is the chemical reaction between amino acids and sugars that chefs apply when searing a steak. “There’s a true Maillard reaction of the botanicals in the wash providing a complex natural sweetness so these tea gins are made without adding sugar and yet are still friendly to the palate, putting them in the sip-able arena.” Even after solving these problems himself, Rowland had one other challenge for bringing his Earl Grey Gin to market. “We third-party distill,” he said matter-of-factly before diving into the process he had to go through to ensure his recipe would be in good hands. “I spent probably about six months also checking out all our local distillers and asking them how their stills work and how they operate them to find someone that truly knew what they were doing and would help me be
able to transcribe my small recipe to the commercial run.”
COIT SPIRITS GINS
Rowland built his gin brand entirely based on his expertise working with a temperature-sensitive ingredient like tea. While Earl Grey Gin was their first and flagship gin, they’ve since added two others. Coit Cape Gin uses fermented South African Rooibos tea and Coit Caravan Gin features Lapsang Souchong tea, which is dried over pine wood and has an intense smokey character. All three of the teas aren’t just a unique botanical unto themselves, but have an additional processing quality that adds character. While he began by looking towards Europe for education and inspiration, there was a moment not too long ago when Rowland thought, “The [American] consumer hasn’t been ready for gin.” But now? Rowland thinks America is ready to have its gin moment.
Aaron Knoll is a noted gin historian, critic, and consultant. He authored 2015's “Gin: The Art and Craft of the Artisan Revival,” which has since been translated into three languages, and additionally co-authored 2013's “The Craft of Gin.” He also founded leading gin website TheGinisIn.com in 2009.
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