Copper & Kings American Dry Gin Review

To me, summer is gin season. There is nothing like a tall, ice-cold gin and tonic on a hot, humid day. The botanicals bring a brightness to the palate that provide just as much of a cooling sensation as the ice. With summer weather just around the corner (and for many of us it’s already arrived), here’s my suggestion on how to drink curious this gin season.

For years, many perceived gin as a one-note liquor: "It tastes like a Christmas tree!" But, thanks to a particularly robust craft interest in the infused spirit, the shelves are now brimming with gins boasting a myriad of botanicals - beyond the requisite juniper - to include common herbs like anise and coriander, to more exotic spices like sumac and seaweed. Though I do appreciate the unusual, I find incredible comfort (and refreshment) in the old guard flavors, especially when they are combined in new ways.

In Louisville, Kentucky, Copper & Kings American Brandy Company focuses their business on a less-than-lauded spirit: brandy. They mostly make grape brandy, but do have an apple as part of of regular portfolio as was as limited releases of pear, peach, and others.  A good apple brandy - in its purest form - can be a beautiful thing, and a perfect companion to bourbon in a cocktail. However, the particular delight of apple brandy is that it makes a fabulous base distillate for other spirits, and in this case, gin. Copper & Kings produces six varieties: American Dry, Old Tom, and 1495 Guilders (based on an old German recipe that includes mostly warming spices), Moons of Juniper (an very juniper forward gin), The Ninth (an orange gin aged in orange curaçao barrels, and The History of Lovers (a rose gin). This review will focus on the first, and more widely recognizable, of the lineup.