Northshore Magazine

Northshore July 2019

Northshore magazine showcases the best that the North Shore of Boston, MA has to offer.

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96 Both spirits meet preconceived expecta- tions of how they're supposed to taste, but they're made so cleanly, and with such discern- ment in the selection of ingredients, that they read as distinct not only from one another but from other examples of their styles. That level of distinction extends to Tam- worth's gins, this spirit being something of a blank canvas for experimenting with flavors and scents. "It's exciting!" says Henle. "It's a heavily gin-saturated market. With so many new craft distilleries popping up, gin is one of the more exciting areas where you can get very creative very early." Gin, after all, is more or less just vodka infused with juniper berries; hitting that met- ric is a simple feat, and after that, rules don't apply. So Tamworth plays by their own, using a rotary evaporator in the gin-making process and looking in their backyard for inspiration. "Most of these incorporate botanicals and in- gredients that are wildly foraged right around here," Henle points out with pride, noting the Thai Chili gin as an obvious exception. "The whole idea for these gins is that we're taking the flavors and smells of a particular time of the year and creating that into liquid." So from one gin to the next, you'll find chrysanthe- mum, linden flower, elderflower, labdanum, lavender, Orris root, or lemon verbena sup- plementing the coriander and juniper berries common to the form, and as a consequence each gin is wholly unique from the others. Flora smells like a flower garden. Tamworth Garden presents a punch of stone fruit. Thai Chili is remarkably gentle compared to its namesake. All of them are delicious. That's reason enough to visit Tamworth Distilling, though the surroundings don't hurt. Even in the dead of January, when the town hibernates along with nature, the building is surrounded by a forbidding sort of beauty ; when the weather turns and the ice melts, the area comes to idyllic life. And visiting is educational, too. "You're going to try things here that you cannot try elsewhere, and you have that fun repartee of sampling and contrasting and comparing," says Henle. Educating customers is important, of course. But making great spirits is essen- tial, and from farm to bottle, bottle to farm, that's what Tamworth Distilling does. tamworthdistilling.com

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