York Gin Discovery Box tasting sessions
As part of your Discovery Box offer, you can watch exclusive YouTube videos The York Gin experts guide you through each pairing of gin, Faver-Tree tonic and garnish. They really help you to get the most from your box! If you don't yet have a Discovery Box - buy one here with Free UK delivery
Watch YouTube sessions - or run your own
Watch each video for each gin in turn on our YouTube Discovery Box playlist
Susannah and Jo from the York Gin shop have years of experience describing all our gins.
They've also recorded lots of other York Gin video shows - with cocktail making, history, fun facts, quotes and jokes. Thousands of people have enjoyed them.
They're all on our YouTube channel and Facebook page - and well worth a look.
You can also run your own tasting sessions using the info supplied in your box. You can find all this info below too.
How to get the most out of a gin tasting for the first time
In the York Gin shop, we encourage customers to go through four stages to really learn about a gin.
1 Open the bottle and use your nose
A large proportion of your experience of any flavours comes from the sense of smell. If you hold your nose you won’t taste much - this is true not only of gin but virtually any food or drink. So, what can you detect? Are you getting peppery or flowery or citrus notes perhaps?
2 Try neat at room temperature
Don’t worry – we’re only talking about a tiny amount of gin. Pour a little into your glass, just take a tiny amount and let a little run over your tongue, then breathe gently. You’ll sense the different botanicals clearly. The sides of your tongue have particular taste buds, so it helps if you let the gin coat your whole tongue. You’ll get more out of the tasting!
3 Over ice
Pour a couple of thimblefuls over a block of ice. Here, you’ll usually find the flavours open up and you’ll taste something else. This is because the water in the ice interacts with the alcohol and oils in the gin, and allows different flavour molecules to be released.
4 In a G&T or cocktail
Tasting over ice and neat should have given you a good idea of the flavours you can taste and which you most like. These stages should be a good guide as to whether you want to add tonic or throw yourself straight into a cocktail.
Tasting notes and perfect serves for all your gins
York Gin London Dry
Nine botanicals used by English gin makers for over 300 years come together to form a complex and satisfying classic. York Gin London Dry is all about the balance of flavours. Described as ‘perfect’ in the Great Taste Awards 2019.
Tasting notes
A traditionally dry, juniper-led gin with a balance of floral notes and warm cardamom. A gentle citrus edge is complemented by the spiciness of coriander and pepper. It’s complex and smooth – no single taste takes precedence over the others. Beautiful neat, or with any number of gin cocktails.
Recommended Serve: Gin & Tonic
50ml York Gin London Dry (42.5%)
100-150ml Fever-Tree Refreshingly Light Tonic
Ice - ideally large cubes
Garnish: Juniper berries and/or fresh lemon peel
Method: Ice first, gin next, then tonic, gently stir and add your garnish.
Watch the Discovery Box Tasting video for York Gin London Dry
York Gin Roman Fruit
A juniper-led, full-strength (42.5%) dry gin with no added sugar, infused with fruits and flowers associated with Ancient Rome - including strawberries, raspberries, blackberries, apples and hibiscus.
Tasting notes
Your nose will determine which flavour is most prominent after the juniper - strawberry, blackberry, raspberry or apple? It is lovely in a G&T with your preferred fruit, as well as in lots of summer cocktails.
Recommended Serve: Roman Fruit punch-style fizz
50ml York Gin Roman Fruit
150ml Fever-Tree Sicilian Lemonade
Over ice in a tall glass
Garnish - Dried Fruit or hibiscus – enhances both the flavour and colour
Method: Ice first, gin next, then lemonade, gently stir and add your garnish.
Watch the Discovery Box tasting video for York Gin Roman Fruit
York Gin outlaw
Our Navy Strength 57% gin. Best Navy Gin 2021 at the World Gin awards and a Double Gold medal winner at the prestigious San Francisco International Spirits awards 2019.
The Outlaw name is a nod to York's villains, Guy Fawkes, Dick Turpin and ‘Yorkshire Witch', Mary Bateman. Stronger flavours; higher alcohol.
Enjoy York Gin Outlaw with ice, tonic … and care.
Tasting notes
Dry and strongly juniper-led. Watch out for notes of floral, lemon, cardamom and pepper. It’s our London Dry - only more so!
Recommended Serve: Pepper Martini & soda
50ml York Gin Outlaw
Ice - ideally large cubes
Black peppercorns
Add Fever-Tree Soda Water to taste (from a splash to a long drink)
Watch the Discovery Box tasting video for York Outlaw
York Gin Old Tom
A Victorian-style dry gin with a small amount of herb-infused sugar syrup made in the kitchen of one of Yorkshire's finest restaurants - the Michelin-starred Star Inn, Harome. It is the World Gin Awards’ Best English Old Tom 2020, won the International Wine & Spirit Competition Gold Outstanding medal with a score 98% (only one of six gins in the world), and secured a Gold Medal at the Spirits Business Gin Masters.
Tasting notes
Warm with hints of star anise and cinnamon, softly aromatic. Herbaceous and floral. Warming spice. Earthy and a hint of liquorice. 42.5%
Recommended Serve: Ginger Tom with Cinnamon
50ml Old Tom Gin
100ml Fever-Tree Ginger Ale
Ice
Garnish - Cinnamon bark
Optional – Sugar syrup / Orange peel
Method: Ice first, gin next, then ginger ale, gently stir and add your garnish.
Watch the Discovery Box tasting video for York Gin Old Tom
York Gin Grey Lady
Our London Dry is distilled with Earl Grey tea and infused with pea flower to create a hauntingly spectral blue-grey hue. The delicate subtle citrus from the bergamot in the Earl Grey complements the delicate shade of the gin.
Tasting notes
As well as the juniper discernible in all our dry gins, you may well detect the extra citrus from the bergamot in the Earl Grey tea. Orange is also a particular taste many drinkers pick out in York Gin Grey Lady. But, as top drinks writer Susy Atkins said in the Sunday Telegraph, ‘it’s a masterpiece in subtlety’. So you may have to concentrate extra hard to pick out what you’re tasting with this one!
Recommended Serve: Ghostly G&T
50ml York Gin Grey Lady
100ml Fever-Tree Refreshingly Light tonic
Ice - ideally large cubes
Garnish: Dried Lemon peel
Method: Ice first, gin next, then tonic, gently stir and add your garnish.
Watch the Discovery Box tasting video for York Gin Grey Lady
Buy a Discovery Box
If you haven't already got a Discovery Box, we hope we've convinced you they're a great idea.
And if you know a gin lover, they really do make a perfect gift.
Buy a Discovery Box Gin & Tonic Set for a home tasting session