gin no. 018 – Green Mountain Black Gin

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• Green Mountain Black Gin is an organic gin from Vermont.
• It is a traditional juniper-forward gin.
• Bottles are individually numbered with batch and bottle, ours is batch 1402, bottle 233.

The first time I tried Green Mountain Black Gin I thought I was drinking Cold River Gin.  I had tried Cold River at Ostra in Boston, but, as sometimes happens when drinking gin, I could not remember what the name of it was the next time I went.  My friend suggested it was Green Mountain and I went with it.  For a while now, I have been drinking the two gins interchangeably, and somewhat confused each time.  I thought it was important to figure out which was the one I really liked so I took a couple of taste tests and there is really no excuse to confuse these two gins.  They are nothing alike and if you want to stop reading now I completely understand!

If it is important to you that your gin is organic, congratulations, here you go.  Green Mountain is made with organic grain and Vermont spring water.  It isn’t important to me, the taste is.  The botanicals in Green Mountain Black include juniper, coriander,  lemon and orange peels, anise and lavender. But really it is a very traditional New London Style gin.   There is a ton of juniper flavor and just a little citrus. The finish is mild and it is certainly smooth enough to drink straight, which is impressive given that its alcohol content is slightly on the high side, 92 proof. The finish is exceptionally clean and in a gin and tonic it is mild and refreshing.

Green Mountain tags all of its gin with a batch and bottle number. The bottle I have is batch 1402, bottle 233.  Although they are artisanal, they have made a lot of gin over the years.  The bottle is rather industrial with white lettering directly on the bottle and a stark black label.  Although their website and their address put the distillery in Morrisville, their bottle uses the more widely known Stowe as their location.  To their credit, they are on the road between the two.

Overall, Green Mountain Black is solid juniper forward gin.  It used to be just “Green Mountain Organic Gin,” but now they make a second style so they call the original “Black” and the other “Citrus”. I got my bottle long ago, but the distiller lists the price on the website as $34.06, kind of a strange price. If you value organic, make this your go to gin.  Because its flavor is limited to mostly juniper and citrus, it can be used in any traditional gin cocktail.  It isn’t particularly exciting, but if you want a good juniper-forward gin that is made locally in small batches, this is a great choice.