The views in this review are our own opinion and have not been influenced by anyone at Chelsea Royal.
This week Mr Bandit went on tour and headed over to Islington for the annual Spirits Show London. It was a great opportunity to try some new gin, hear the stories behind them and also meet some great people who also share a passion for the drinks industry. One brand we came across was Chelsea Royal Gin. It’s a new brand which we’ve seen popping up a lot recently across our different social media platforms, so we was keen to give it a go. We managed to get speaking to Jordan from Chelsea Royal who gave us a bit of a back story on how they got into the wonderful world of Gin.
Although they only launched in March this year, the team behind Chelsea Royal are veterans within the drinks industry. With over 50 years’ experience behind them in the Whisky sector, Chelsea Royal is the premium gin offering from Angus Dundee Distillers PLC. It was Jordan’s grandfather Terrance Hillman who previously worked as a whisky broker, who founded Angus Dundee over 50 years ago, and to this day, they remain an independent, family-run business. It was nice to see all the generations from the Hillman family at the show promoting the company as a family unit. Terrance was also there, along with his lovely wife Jean who Mr Bandit also chatted to.
Everything from their stunning bottle design, labelling was designed in-house, along with their chosen blend of botanicals which include the more common gin ingredients such as juniper berries, coriander seed, angelica and liquorice root, but they also feature two dried orange peels from Spain which are sweet and bitter and less commonly used together in Gin. The gin making process is made by batch distillation on a John Dore still using a base of 100% grain spirit to ensure a high quality, pure gin and bottled up at 43.1% ABV.
On the advice from Jordan we’ve used Mediterranean Fevertree and garnished with a twist of orange peel for our serve, we have to agree with him, it works really well. It’s a juniper-forward gin which also delivers zesty orange flavours with a hint of subtle spiciness. We think it’s perfect for a classic G&T and we would also like to try it in a Negroni.
Chelsea Royal is a solid London Dry gin, and they seem to have achieved a lot in such a short space of time. When we asked Jordan what the plans are for the future he said ‘they would like to grow a larger portfolio of gin’. Looking at what they have done in the whisky industry, I think there’s definitely more to come from the team at Chelsea Royal.
If your interested in picking up a bottle, its available at various online stores. We’ve seen it on Masters of Malt, Uvinum, Drink Finder and is priced at between £27-£30, which is great value for money.
As always, let us know your thoughts on Chelsea Royal Gin if you’ve had it, and how you enjoyed your serve.
Also, if you’re enjoying our blog, please spread the word. We’ve been up and running 3 weeks now, and we will have a lot more reviews coming up.
Happy Ginning
The Gin Bandits