Gin Seng – 500ml

Gin Seng with juniper and ginseng root

Gin Seng is Dr. Jaglas' juniper spirit, built on fresh juniper berries and earthy ginseng root. At 50% ABV, it is a robust, dry gin. The recipe follows an entry from the German Pharmacopoeia of 1872.

Gin Seng is a dry gin with 50% ABV in a 500 ml apothecary bottle, awarded by Gault&Millau. In a way, it is the distilled answer to the company's ginseng elixir: the same root, the same herbal signature, only clear instead of amber.

Juniper-forward, resinous, and earthy all at once

On the nose, juniper is the first impression: powerful and resinous. On the palate, the ginseng root pushes underneath, bringing an earthy depth you wouldn't expect from a gin.

The two are actually foils to one another. Juniper is bright and ethereal, while ginseng is dark and grounded – together they create a tension that supports the gin rather than pulling it apart.

Surrounding this is the family's herbal framework of gentian, ginger, nutmeg, lavender, valerian, and a hint of saffron. The gin remains dry, showcasing its botanicals in their raw form.

At 50% ABV, it carries considerable strength without coming across as sharp. At this strength, the herbal oils dissolve better, which you can tell because the gin still tastes great even when highly diluted—with weaker spirits, the aroma often vanishes completely in tonic.

With tonic or as the house Negroni

Gin Seng can handle a bold tonic. Because it brings so much substance of its own, it doesn't get lost behind the quinine notes.

For a Gin & Tonic, use 20 ml with a good tonic water, add ice and a slice of orange instead of the usual lemon – the orange peel picks up on the root note better. If you want to try it neat, avoid drinking it ice-cold, otherwise the aromatics will close up. A drop of water in the glass, however, will open it up immediately, much like a whisky.

The best drink remains the house-made Negroni. Take one part each of Gin Seng, red vermouth, and Artichoke Elixir, plus an orange zest. That way, the entire Jagla family is represented in one glass.

To get to know it, there is the Gin Seng in 50 ml. If you prefer the ginseng root as a bitter, try the Golfer's Ginseng Elixir.

A recipe from the 1872 Pharmacopoeia

Historically, gin is closer to the pharmacy than most bars would suspect. Juniper spirits were listed in pharmacopoeias for centuries.

The German Pharmacopoeia of 1872, the Pharmacopoea Germanica, also listed it under the name Spiritus Juniperi. The recipe for Gin Seng is based exactly on this entry – a gin, therefore, that does not follow a gin trend, but rather a standard older than most brands on the shelf.

For the Jagla family, the step was obvious. Anyone who has been preparing herbs for elixirs for generations has the botanicals on hand anyway – at the Park-Apotheke in the Elberfeld Luisenviertel district in Wuppertal, which Helmut Jagla runs.

The difference from the elixir lies solely in the process. With the bitter, the herbal extracts remain in the glass; with the gin, they go through the still and emerge clear. What remains is the fragrance without the color – and a dryness that the bitter never quite reaches.

These herbal specialties were meant to reach beyond the Bergisches Land region, says Christina Jagla of her move to Berlin in late 2015. Today, the bottles can be found in bars and top-tier gastronomy, all the way up to the three-star Rutz restaurant. You can find the entire Dr. Jaglas range in the manufacturer hub.