NC'Nean Clover Club

In Belgium Nc’Nean is still a lesser known whisky distiller. I think we need to change that because they do have a great story and even The Guardian says it’s one of the Top10 distilleries to visit when you can (… because it’s a bit remote). NC’Nean is the UK’s first ever organic whisky distiller. They love to create experimental spirits and pioneer with sustainable production. The distillery is located at the Scottish west coast. Across the water on the Isle of Mull lies Tobermory, another one of my favourite distillers who also produce a delicious gin. 

Back to NC’Nean. The first products they made were not whisky, but botanical spirit and an aged botanical spirit. This also started yeast experiments, because they didn’t want to use the exact same yeast as all other distillers. The Botanical Spirit originated as the ‘new make’ for their whisky (it needs to age for at least 3 years before you can call it whisky), but was enhanced with locally grown herbs and spices. One of those spices is juniper, but still you also can’t call it a gin because it doesn’t tick all the boxes for those regulations. The spirit is somewhere in between gin and unaged whisky. 

NC’Nean is an abbreviation for Neachneohain, the Gaelic queen of spirits. In the back of my ‘to do’ cabinet I found a bottle of NC’Nean Botanical Spirit from Batch 1, on the bottle the name was still spelled NCN’Ean. It seems the name was changed later on because it was too hard to pronounce. Well, it’s still not so easy, is it? Let’s make a nice drink with this spirit. 

You could use this botanical spirit as if it was a gin. Mix it with a premium tonic, a splash of bitters and garnish with grapefruit. Or use it in a tasty cocktail like this variation on the classic ‘Clover Club’. 

NC’Nean Clover Club

Ingredients
50 ml NC’Nean Botanical Spirit
25 ml Fresh lemon juice
20 ml Raspberry syrup
1 eggwhite

Method
Add all ingredients to a shaker with just one (1!) ice cube. Shake hard to develop some nice foam. Then shake again with some more ice for just 10 seconds. Strain in a chilled coupe. Garnish if you please, but I think it’s overrated for this one. 

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