Spirits Review: Escubac

As much as I love a G&T, negroni or boulevardier, I do fear that we are reaching ‘peak gin’, so this year my boozy antennae are scanning for other signals from the spirit gods. And I have received good copy, loud and clear, that this spring and summer I shall be drinking Escubac.

It comes from the crew at Sweetdram. This is an East London spirits workshop where they compile a library of individual botanical distillates, blend them together to determine a provisional formula, upscale the blend to a 110-litre test still, tweak it a little and when happy, take it to production using the antique stills at Distillerie Combier in Saumur in France’s Loire Valley.

It’s a riff on an old recipe from the 1700s, one that has been given a contemporary twist. They macerate 14 botanicals, including caraway, cardamom, nutmeg and citrus, for 72 hours, then slowly distill before sweetening with raisins, vanilla and a dash of sugar before colouring it with saffron.

It is kind of like a cross between chartreuse and gin or perhaps just a gin sans juniper… but by golly it’s good; balanced and smooth with a trail of cardamom, spice, vanilla and the merest hint of spearmint in the background, finishing harmonious and long. Tackle it with ice, tonic and lemon. Drink nice things.

sweetdram.com