Het lijkt weer GinTonic-tijd. Dat komt goed uit, want voor het eerst werd de Meininger International Spirits Award ISW gewijd aan de combinatie van Gin met Tonic. Er werd gezocht naar de perfecte matches. Meer dan 150 combinaties van bijna 30 verschillende gins met zes verschillende tonic merken van Schweppes en Goldberg werden op de tafel van de proefjury gezet.
Lees verder in het persbericht:
In the blind tasting, the judges were each given 5 cl of gin freshly mixed with 15 cl of tonic water on exactly five ice cubes and served without garnish. Three different tonic waters from Schweppes and Goldberg each entered the competition.
The classic tonic waters of the two brands formed the ideal basis for comparison.
From the market leader Schweppes, the Dry Tonic with reduced sugar content and refreshing effervescence and the completely new Herbal Tonic, which convinces with fine herbal notes, also competed. The new quality will perspectively also be available in 0.2-liter bottles, for example for the bar scene.
In addition to the flagship tonic water, Goldberg also entered its own Mediterranean Tonic with refreshing herbal aromas and citrus and orange notes, as well as the Japanese Yuzu Tonic, with the unmistakable aroma of the yuzu fruit.
For the first time in the almost 20-year history of ISW, we no longer blind tasted and evaluated just the pure spirit, but in combination with various fillers,’ explains ISW Director Degustation Christian Wolf. ‘Of course, the anonymity of the samples was also guaranteed here, so that any influence by names or reputation of certain brands was excluded.’
A difficult task for the taster round from spirit connoisseurs and bar experts such as the Hamburg bar icon Uwe Christiansen or Mixology editor-in-chief Nils Wrage. First, the gins were tasted pure and analysed aromatically using a specially developed ISW evaluation scheme. This was followed at short intervals by the six gin & tonic combinations with the respective base gin.
The task of the jury was now to evaluate how certain tonic waters change the characteristics of the gin, emphasize or suppress certain flavours, and to choose a perfect match for the respective gin with a specific tonic water.
Schweppes Dry Tonic emerged from the tasting as the winner in terms of versatility, with eight combinations accounting for the most perfect matches. The dry, tangy taste was well received by the experts and opened up exciting new flavours in some gins, which sometimes remained undiscovered in the pure tasting.
But the traditional tonics also performed very well, with five respectively six perfect matches. The typical tonic taste, which every consumer is familiar with, harmonizes not without reason with a wide range of gin varieties, leaving them room to develop and play out their flavours.
The Goldberg Mediterranean Tonic was also able to generate four perfect matches and also shows itself to be versatile. Schweppes’ Herbal Tonic was judged to be aromatically overloaded in some combinations, but nevertheless emerged as the jury favorite in two cases. This again shows the enormous variety of flavours in the gin sector.
The Japanese Yuzu Tonic elicited mixed reactions from the tasters. The very distinctive style with concise sweetness was not preferred by a few jurors in individual combinations. But in the right mix, the yuzu tonic is able to convince one or the other palate.
In the process, it crystallized that there are both gins that harmonize with various tonics and can always prevail due to their strong basic aromas, as well as gins that bring somewhat more fragile aromas with them and are dependent on a finely tuned sparring partner in the filler area.
“Gin is drunk to a far predominant part in combination with tonic, so that we would like to offer here both the consumers and the trade, the catering trade and bar scene with this competition a small assistance”, so Director Degustation Christian Wolf finally.
