New Bombay Sapphire Product Christened "East"

I still haven't sampled it (I expect to at the Manhattan Cocktail Classic, which begins tomorrow), but I now have the name of the new bottling from Bombay gin. It will be called Bombay Sapphire East.

The new gin to be unveiled in July in three test markets (including New York). East is a logical name, for joining the 10-botantical recipe found in regular Bombay Sapphire will be Thai lemongrass and Vietnamese black peppercorn. The original ten ingredients are Spanish almonds, grains of paradise, lemon peel, licorice, juniper, orris root, coriander, cassia bark, and cubeb berries.

Like Bombay Sapphire, which was launched in 1987, and is one of the first premium gins to hit the market, the botanicals for the new liqour will not be steeped in the spirit. Rather, the distilled alcohol vapors are passed through a mesh basket containing the botanicals in order to catch the flavor and aroma.

Sapphire has such a following, I predict the line extension will do splendidly, and enjoy success similar to that of Beefeater 24, a like-minded product that was introduced in late 2008, and features Chinese green and Japanese sencha teas.

New Bombay Gin Product Puts Asian Twist on Botanical Mix

We still don't know the name of the new Bombay Sapphire Gin product, which is to be unveiled in July in three test markets (including New York), but the botanical recipe was been revealed. 

Joining the 10-botantical recipe found in regular Bombay Sapphire will be Thai lemongrass and Vietnamese black peppercorn, according to a company spokesman. The original ten ingredients are Spanish almonds, grains of paradise, lemon peel, licorice, juniper, orris root, coriander, cassia bark, and cubeb berries.

Like Bombay Sapphire, which was launched in 1987, and is one of the first premium gins to hit the market, the botanicals for the new liqour will not be steeped in the spirit. Rather, the distilled alcohol vapors are passed through a mesh basket containing the botanicals in order to catch the flavor and aroma.

The use of Asian botanicals is not a new idea. Beefeater 24, a line extension that was introduced in late 2008, features Chinese green and Japanese sencha teas.

Bombay Sapphire to Release New Gin Expression in Late 2010

Bombay Sapphire, the ubiquitous, blue-bottled, and wildly successful offshoot of Bombay Gin, will have a brother by the end of the year.

The Bacardi-distributed product will see its line extended by one in late 2010/early 2011 with a new brand featuring additional botanicals, as well as those found in regular Sapphire. The move follows rival Beefeater's recent efforts to expand its expressions, releasing both Beefeater 24 and Beefeater Summer in the past two years.

Bombay Sapphire was launched in 1987, and was one of the first premium gins to hit the market. It has long since outpaced in sales the original Bombay Gin—which, I'm convinced, many people don't even know exists anymore.  The flavouring of Sapphire comes from a recipe of ten botanicals: almond, lemon peel, liquorice, juniper berries, orris root, angelica, coriander, cassia, cubeb, and grains of paradise. Unlike the distillation methods of other, more traditional gins, the botanicals are not steeped in the spirit. Rather, the spirit is triple distilled and the alcohol vapours are passed through a mesh basket containing the ten botanicals in order to catch the flavour and aroma. The result is a lighter—and, to critics, more vodka-like—gin.

The new bottling—which is, at yet, unnamed—will add a few ingredients to the regular botanical mix. What they are has not been revealed, but the result it touted to be a "crisp, vibrant flavor." Price will be about the same as standard Sapphire.