In the glass, most gins look pretty much the same. But they all have a very different bouquet of tastes and aromas. This Gin is different in every possible way. It’s not a London Dry Gin and it has a very sexy color, which changes while you mix your drink.
Illugin is a new gin by a small company located at The Belgian coast. In a market that’s swamped with small batch gins, they wanted to launch a new Belgian gin. But it had to be a special one. A real eye catcher with a wonderful taste.
The most important difference with the average gin in your supermarket : This is an Old Tom Distilled Gin. Slightly sweeter than a London Dry Gin, dryer than a Dutch Genever, but certainly not so sweet as some sticky Spanish gins.
Illugin contains a selection of botanicals such as coriander, caraway, angelica root and blueberries. And here comes the magical part - Among the botanicals used to produce this gin, there’s also a flower that adds “color changing magic” to your drinks. Illugin markets this flower as a secret, but this isn’t the first color changing gin I’ve seen. The flower that’s responsible for this party trick is the Clitoria Ternatea, also known as the Blue Pea or Butterfly Pea, originally grown in Asia and used mainly in tea.
It’s really fun to play with and it will amaze your guests. The color changing happens easily by adding some citrus or tonic to your drink. This colorful gin doesn’t contain any artificial colorants, only natural botanicals.
So this might not be the first Butterfly Pea Gin I’ve seen, it’s definitely one of the tastiest. I really love the taste and aroma of this Old Tom Gin and had lots of fun playing around with it. I used it in three serves this week, which were all pretty and delicious: I mixed up the obligatory Gin & Tonic (watch the cool video on Facebook and Instagram, it’s made with my smartphone by my 9y old daughter !!!).
After that I also mixed up a Gin Sour and a Martinez. The Martinez is a classic recipe that really needs an Old Tom gin to get it 100% right. For the Gin & Tonic I used a 1/3 ratio with a neutral Indian Tonic. For both cocktails I’ll add the recipes below.
Ingredients
50 ml Illugin Old Tom gin
30 ml Fresh lemon juice
10 ml Simple syrup
1 egg white
Method
Add all ingredients to a shaker with just ONE single icecube. Shake hard for 10 seconds.
Add more ice and shake again for 10 seconds to cool it down. Strain in a pre-chilled coupe.
Ingredients
50 ml Illugin Old Tom Gin
25 ml Starlino sweet vermouth
7 ml Leonce Extra Dry vermouth
7 ml Maraschino liqueur
1 dash Angostura bitters
Method
Stir all ingredients together in a mixing glass with lots of ice. Strain into a pre-chilled Martini glass. Garnish with a Maraschino cherry.
If you can handle a slightly more difficult bar-skill, also express a piece of orange peel above the glass to spread some of those fantastic oils. Throw away the peel, don’t put it in your drink.
Disclaimer : All pictures and texts are copyrighted by Geert Conard and Esito Management & Communications unless stated otherwise in the article. While some items might have been gifted by the producer or distributor, these are in no way paid promotions or recommendations.
