Review

Beefeater London Garden Exclusive Edition Gin

James Burrough Ltd (Chivas Brothers Ltd, & Pernod-Ricard Group), Montford Place Distillery, Kennington, London, England, UK.

Beefeater Gin, Chivas Brothers and Pernod Ricard.

Beefeater Gin was first produced at the Chelsea Distillery (established 1820) in the late 1870’s by pharmacist and tea merchant James Burrough, it was originally known as Burrough’s Gin. The Burrough’s family sold the company to Whitbread in 1987; Whitbread sold the Beefeater brand to Allied Domeqq in 1991; and Allied Domeqq were purchased by Pernod Ricard in 2005. Whilst this brand of Gin is popular globally it is a particularly big seller in the USA - in the 1960’s it held 75% of the Gin market and today is the No.3 premium selling brand across North America. We believe it is fair to say that Pernod Ricard have put a lot of time, effort and money into re-marketing this brand and its offspring (e.g. Beefeater 24, Beefeater Summer etc.).

To celebrate the opening of the new Beefeater Home of Gin (Beefeater Visitor's Centre) in May 2014, Beefeater launched this Gin in April 2014.

Unknown but we assume it is made the same way as other Beefeater brands of Gin: using a base spirit from maize and barley grain. Then made by steeping the botanicals for 24 hours, before slowly redistilling inefficiently in copper pot stills, this labor-intensive method taking about 7 - 8 hours for each final distillation.

The Gin is presented in the same tall clear rectangular bottle as the standard Beefeater Gin and has a large white rectangular label. The label has mostly black text with a hand drawn sketch of two potted plants being cultivated under a bell jar and the name “Beefeater” stand out in the standard red color.

London Dry Gin.

40% (80 Proof).

$$$ - $$$$. Only available for purchase by visitors to the Beefeater Distillery in London, England, UK.

Uses 11 botanicals, the same 9 botanicals as the standard Beefeater Gin and adds 2 more (lemon verbena and thyme): almonds (Spain), angelica root (Belgium), angelica seed, coriander seed (Bulgaria, Romania and Russia), juniper berries (Italy, Macedonia and Serbia), lemon peel (Sicily, Italy), lemon verbena, liquorice, orange peel (Seville, Spain), orris root and thyme.

The Chelsea Physic Garden in London was established in 1673 and originally called the Apothecaries Garden, to showcase unusual or exotic medicinal herbs (at least many were at that time). Being within walking distance of Beefeater’s original Chelsea Distillery, the founder James Burrough was known to walk in this garden and undoubtedly took inspiration from these botanicals in producing his spirits. Beefeater’s current Master Distiller has taken this historical information to name this Gin accordingly.

Unfortunately we have haven’t visited Beefeater’s Visitors Centre and thus have not tasted this variant of the classic Beefeater Gin. The website Summer Fruit Cup has an excellent review of it, penned by Gin aficionado David T Smith. 

From this and other reviewers it becomes clear it is similar to the classic Beefeater Gin with the 2 extra botanicals providing a subtle but marked difference. The usual citrus is there but bolstered by the Lemon Verbena and there is an additional herbal, leafy green aroma and taste from both the Lemon Verbena and Thyme. If you like the original Beefeater Gin you should like this too, making a good Gin & Tonic and a reasonable albeit slightly different Martini.

Unknown.