When we were asked if we would like to feature a limited edition butter gin, our collective response was: “feature a what?”.
Yes, butter gin, the product of a unique collaboration between the Portobello Road Distillery and All Things Butter.
We were still not sure about featuring the product, especially as it is a limited edition gin, but we soon changed our minds having been sent a bottle to sample.
Despite the confident retro Victorian-style branding and beautifully packed bottle, which will have definite back bar appeal, we still couldn’t see how butter would work in a gin.
How wrong we were.
As with sampling all the spirits that we receive, this gin was tasted neat and over ice.
In both cases we were extremely impressed with the smoothness of the gin and the subtle butteriness, which does come through producing a memorable creamy finish.
The mouthfeel was delicate, with the juniper forward flavour coming to the fore, but the butter takes off any harshness from the alcohol that you can get from some gins, where the over-riding sensation is heat that often overpowers the botanicals.
In the case of this gin, the butter allows the botanicals to show off their unique flavour, underpinned with what clearly is a high quality, refined base gin, to produce an indulgent spirit, the result of a second distillation with All Things Butter’s fine butter.
So, a big tick against this butter gin, but what possessed the distillery to add butter in the first place?
The owners of the Portobello Road Distillery are keen to celebrate local talent and put the spotlight on some of the excellent producers who form part of the vibrant Notting Hill community.
Over the years, they have championed their spirit of collaboration through the production of various limited edition gins and vodkas, each one taking inspiration from the local artisans.
In the case of the butter gin, the owners partnered with Thomas Straker who runs west London-based All Things Butter, to produce a gin, which (in their words) is: “a rich, velvety spirit that celebrates shared values of quality, authenticity and innovation.”
History is an important element of the spirits produced by Portobello Road Distillery, which underpins the development of the butter gin – the idea for which came from a book of short stories penned by Charles Dickens: ‘Sketches by Boz’.
In ‘Sketches by Boz’, Dickens describes the experience of being in a gin palace, in which a butter gin was available; however, it is very unlikely that Victorian distillers would have actually been distilling with butter.
It has been suggested that the brand referred to by Dickens – ‘Celebrated Butter Gin’ – was using the word ‘butter’ as an early marketing tactic to reinforce the message that this was a quality gin, because only the wealthy could afford butter at that time.
So, whilst butter gin never actually contained any dairy ingredients, we’re delighted that this creative and dynamic distillery took the plunge to add real butter to produce a unique gin that we hope loses the ‘limited edition’ appellation.
For more information about Portobello Road Distillery visit their website
For more information about All Things Butter visit their website