Jindea - the gin inspired by a love of tea

Jindea is the latest gin to join our delivery menu here at The Leafy Elephant and it has a rather unique and very interesting back story we thought was well worth sharing.

Jindea is the first collaboration between three industry professionals, two with strong ties to India which is where the adventure begins. The trio wanted to come up with a gin that played on their Indian heritage and what better way to do that than through tea. They didn't mess around either, going straight to the UK's first certified ITEA Tea Sommelier, Ajit Madan.

Ajit introduced the trio to a rather special tea from the Kurseong Valley, widely known amongst industry experts (and we will have to take their word on this) as the prime area for growing Darjeeling tea. Similar to wine vineyards, the yield of the tea is dependent on climate, altitude, soil type and irrigation - this valley has it all!

So, Darjeeling was the choice of tea for being a key botanical in this new gin. Darjeeling is a black tea with some great characteristics that make it a fine botanical in gin. It is aromatic, it has floral qualities and not too over powering. This gin uses only the most gentle of tea which comes from the spring harvest - making it a perfect addition for this time of year to our menu.

So what does a Darjeeling tea gin taste like?

This gin is still a classic London Dry. Juniper is at the fore, and you will get floral notes from the tea, balanced by citrus from the inclusion of lemons and grapefruit. It is a bold flavoured gin and the aromatic nature of the Darjeeling tea is backed up by ginger, coriander and fennel.

Our perfect serve

As this is a fairly bold gin already with some great flavour, we have decided to keep it simple so you really taste everything that they have put in this gin. So we are serving this with Double Dutch Indian tonic along with dehydrated lemons to enhance the citrus flavour that comes through late on. All that is left is to add plenty of ice and enjoy.

This is available to order right now on our delivery menu. You can view this and place your order here.

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