Bombay Sapphire Gin 1.75L

Bombay Sapphire's recipe traces back to a secret formula from 1761, when Thomas Dakin first began distilling in Warrington, England. His family pioneered what is now called vapor infusion in the early 1830s, using a still still referenced today in the names Thomas and Mary Dakin. The Bombay Sapphire brand itself launched in 1987, taking its name and striking blue bottle from the Star of Bombay, a 182-carat sapphire in the Smithsonian's collection, not the London curry house some assume. Bacardi acquired the brand in 1998 and, in 2014, moved production entirely to Laverstoke Mill, a restored eighteenth-century paper mill on Hampshire's River Test that once printed banknotes for the Bank of England.

Ten botanicals go into the recipe, among them Tuscan juniper, Moroccan coriander seed, Saxon angelica root, Chinese licorice, and West African grains of paradise. Rather than steeping them directly in the spirit, Bombay suspends the botanicals in perforated copper baskets above it, letting rising alcohol vapor draw out their aromas gently, a method the distillery says produces a fresher, more coherent flavor without any cooked or caramelized notes.

The result is bright and juniper-forward, layered with citrus and warm spice, clean and smooth on the finish. It shines in a gin and tonic with grapefruit, a Tom Collins, or alongside a citrus-cured ceviche.