Welcome back to FTW’s Beverage of the Week series. Here, we mostly chronicle and review beers, but happily expand that scope to any beverage that pairs well with sports. Yes, even cookie dough whiskey.
No one’s going to confuse Hendrick’s newest brand extension with its classic gin. The latest arrival from the company’s Cabinet of Curiosities is Grand Cabaret, a spirit Hendrick’s labels as an extravagant “fruity gin.”
That in itself isn’t unusual; search “fruit gin” and you’ll get plenty of hits. But there’s a certain stuffiness that seems to follow the larger ginmakers. You don’t see much in the way of sweet varietals from guys like Beefeater or Bombay or Tanqueray. They’re here for classic cocktails and happy to stay in their lane.
That’s made the Cabinet of Curiosities a satisfying detour. Hendrick’s hit this column a year ago with its Flora Adora spinoff, That blend brought extra botanicals into the mix, but aside from some lingering peach didn’t dive all the way into fruit flavors.
Grand Cabaret does.
This blend leans heavily into stone fruits — anything with a pit, really — in order to throw the clock back to what rich folks were drinking in the 1700s because the water could kill them. The goal is a lighter gin with a solid boozy payload — 43.4 percent alcohol by volume — capable of adding depth to simple cocktails.
Let’s see if it works.
with Betty Buzz tonic: B+
The summer months are upon us. That means its prime gin and tonic time, and that’s how I’m going to judge Grand Cabaret. I’ll be mixing it with Betty Buzz tonic water, a premium mixer from Blake Lively’s brand.
The tonic itself is fizzy, sweet and a little sharp. There’s enough citric acid in there to cover if you don’t have a lime. I do, but I want to give this a try on its own first before mitigating any flaws or strengths with more citrus.
Grand Cabaret smells light and floral. There isn’t much here to tell you it isn’t a traditional gin, aside from maybe a feathery touch on the juniper and more of a fruity, herbal bent.
The first sip shows off the stone fruit promised on the label. This is plum and cherry and much sweeter than you’d expect from a typical gin. There’s plenty of berry in there as well, giving you the feeling you were eating a gin-based popsicle. This was already a summer spirit to begin with, but Hendrick’s super charged that by making a fruit-forward booze you can easily turn into a very drinkable two-step cocktail.
There is a little bit of a concern with that. The dryness inherent to gin gets washed away by that fructose finish. You wind up with something a bit sloppy on your lips.
But anyone who wants a standard gin experience can always stick to the regular Hendrick’s (or a hundred other varieties. Hendrick’s is great but my personal preference is The Botanist). I can appreciate the work the brand put in here and the restraint to keep this from being a fully fledged fruit gin and instead just one that leans into the berries and herbs that make it unique.
with Betty Buzz tonic and a lime: A
Oohhhhhh yeah. That’s the balance. The sweet sloppiness of the stone fruit in this gin gets cleaned up by the sharp citrus. That fixes just about every minor problem I had with the drink and really takes it to another level.
The lime also brings out the depth of the fruit in the Grand Cabaret, giving you that plum and cherry much more clearly. The taste lingers long after it clears your lips, not in a weak aftertaste way but as a full-bodied reminder that you’re drinking something different. That cherry is light and flavorful throughout, and while it’s clear you’re drinking gin I can honestly say I’ve never had a gin and tonic like this.
I’m gonna be crushing these all summer. Take the extra step and slice yourself a lime. Hot damn.
Would I drink it instead of a Hamm’s?
This is a pass/fail mechanism where I compare whatever I’m drinking to my baseline cheap beer. That’s the standby from the land of sky-blue waters, Hamm’s. So the question to answer is: on a typical day, would I drink Hendrick’s Grand Cabaret over a cold can of Hamm’s?
Absolutely. Especially if I have a lime available.
