In an unspecified year circa 1860, Charles Tanqueray paid a visit to the orange groves in Seville, Spain. The founder of Tanqueray was apparently so inspired by his visit that he created a gin recipe based on Seville oranges. Nearly 140 years later, this recipe was revisited and reinvented, creating the latest Tanqueray Flor de Sevilla.
Tanqueray is no stranger to flavoured gins. They recently redesigned the bottle for Indian-inspired Tanqueray Rangpur, which has been out in the market since 2006. The Tanqueray Rangpur is a citrusy gin, taken from the Rangpur lime which is a cross between a mandarin orange and lemon. Earlier this year as well, they brought back the Tanqueray Malacca into its lineup thanks to a surge in demand. The gin with grapefruit citrus and spicy cinnamon was actually released in 1997 to a flop, leading to it being pulled out just four years later. But with the gin renaissance, it seems the Tanqueray Malacca will be more appreciated now.
It is perhaps thanks to this uprising in juniper-less gins that Tanqueray was confident enough to debut yet another gin that doesn’t feature that particular botanical element as prominently. Similar to the Malacca and Rangpur, the Tanqueray Flor de Sevilla features a citrusy top note, this time centred around oranges from Seville.
The light orange hue of the gin is immediately inviting, bringing to mind sunny days spent walking barefoot in the orange groves with the sweet smell of orange blossoms in the air. At first whiff, the gin gives off an overwhelming aroma of zesty orange and pink grapefruit — no hint of juniper there. But give it a taste and you’ll find that the underlying juniper and coriander notes rise to the surface, just after the initial sweet tangy scent of orange.
It might sound like a syrupy orange mixer, but the saccharine note of oranges won’t completely overwhelm thanks to the other four botanicals of the London Dry — juniper, coriander, angelica root, and liquorice — that perfectly balance it out. The Tanqueray Flor de Sevilla is bottled at 41.3% abv and would make a perfect Negroni.
“Tanqueray Flor de Sevilla is something really new for the world of gin and reflects our love of innovating with flavour,” said Diageo’s Europe category director for gin, Anita Robinson. “We’re sure that bartenders everywhere will enjoy bringing a little bit of Seville into their customers’ lives.”
PohNee Chin
Editor, Kuala Lumpur
Poh Nee is the editor and writes about travel and drinks. When she's not living out her holiday dreams via Google Earth and sipping on an Old Fashioned down at the local bars, you can find her snug at home bingeing on Netflix and mystery fiction.
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