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Jawbox listed among UK’s best pink gins

Belfast-based Jawbox has been listed among the UK’s best pink gins by the influential BBC Good Food magazine.

The magazine’s experts taste-tested a series of gins with ingredients ranging from raspberry and rhubarb. The independent judging panel tested Jawbox’s Rhubarb and Ginger Gin and found it the “sweetest” in the review

The magazine continued: “While only 20% ABV, it has a huge nose with rhubarb leading in a big tangy rush and ginger following far more subtly after the boiled sweet-style richness.

“As you’d expect from a liqueur, it’s entirely suited to drinking neat, and again leads with the rhubarb giving a mouth-watering sharpness before the sweetness comes in on a rich, mouth-coating body.

“The ginger is quite restrained, adding warmth to a long finish. It works well with tonic, although a drier one is recommended to stop that sweetness becoming overwhelming. If drinking long, a small splash of soda gives the rhubarb and ginger space to shine.”

All products, according to BBC Good Food, were chosen independently by its editorial team.

It adds: “Time was, when you asked for a ‘pink gin’, it meant a dry gind with a splash of Angostura bitters. This was a bracing naval drink, redolent of one of Graham Greene or Patrick Hamilton’s doomed romances.

“Now, to many, it means a fruity, often sweet, aromatic gin that’s designed to be drunk with plenty of tonic – more Aperol spritz in nature than neat spirit. Purists may resent the usurpation of the name but, done well, this loose grouping is a fine addition to the gin family.”

Jawbox launched rhubarb and ginger-flavoured and a pineapple and ginger-flavoured liqueur, which it says is a first for the industry, in 2018. The liqueurs combine sweet and spicy flavours with the brand’s signature small batch gin.