School Spirits Small Batch Gin now available
Niagara Collegeadds to burgeoning cocktail scene
Gin is making a comeback in a big way, and with summer on its way, Niagara College has its own batch of the cocktail-bar staple for crafting that signature summer cocktail.
On May 11, the school’s Teaching Distillery in Niagara-on-the-Lake launched its School Spirits Small Batch Gin, a culmination of eight months of studies for the college’s first graduating class in the artisan distilling program.
“The cocktail scene has absolutely taken off; there’s amazing mixologists across the province pushing gin cocktails right now,” said college distiller David Dickson, explaining at least one impetus behind the decision for students to craft a gin, adding to the Teaching Distillery’s existing product lineup of School Spirits Vodka and School Spirits Eau-devie de Fruits.
Perhaps the larger reason, however, is gin’s varied use of botanicals, from juniper to coriander, to develop unique flavour profiles. Extracting floral, citrus and spice notes from botanicals was a skill the school wanted students to learn, all the while allowing for a product with its own singular style among an array of gins on the market.
“The distiller really gets to put their stamp on the taste,” said Dickson, explaining he worked on the core recipe, with students offering their input before settling on a final flavour profile utilizing citrus peel, cardamom, coriander, the gin essential juniper, horse root, angelica, lemon verbena and more. With 50 to 100 botanicals to choose from the possibilities were endless.
It was a challenge of balance, Dickson said, recalling how he and students wanted to create a gin with balance, something with a little more complexity of flavour than a London dry gin, but not so bold it couldn’t make a versatile cocktail base.
“We wanted it to be flavourforward,” he said, adding that “the goal was to create a gin that walks the line between a classic gin and the new wave of gins being released in Ontario.”
The result was a relatively sweet gin, with floral notes and just a slight citrus flavour backed with spice notes.
“It’s fresh; it has some really nice floral notes,” said Dickson.
Student Mike Bright said he found the process interesting, notably extracting flavours from floral sources. “It is definitely something I have on my shelf at home,” Bright said.
With a limited production output, School Spirits Small Batch Gin is available only at Niagara College’s Wine Visitor and Education Centre, at $28.10 for a 375-millilitre bottle.