At the risk of sounding like a massive snob, I’d never tried a supermarket brand of gin before today. I popped into Aldi this afternoon for some of their G&T icepops, and I remembered reading something about their own brand gin winning some awards, so I quickly made my way to the booze aisle to check it out. I had to do a quick Google once I found it – the gin I was looking at, Oliver Cromwell Gin, was under £10 for 70cl, but that’s the one I was after apparently.

I really didn’t know what to expect from Oliver Cromwell gin. On one hand, how good can a bottle of gin be that costs £9.75…? But when you Google this gin, it has won taste tests over Hendricks, and everyone loves Hendricks. There was only one way to find out.

As with most own label products, Aldi’s Oliver Cromwell gin is made to look like a well known brand, in this case, Gordon’s. And as it turns out, what’s inside the bottle is trying to be Gordon’s too.

A little taste of Oliver Cromwell gin neat is full of juniper with a hint of citrus. In a G&T, the taste is initially quite smooth but the citrus kind of gets lost a little bit and you’re left with just juniper and tonic water. I had to add a hefty wedge of lemon to balance it out a bit.

I also tried Oliver Cromwell gin with lime, but it didn’t really complement the gin and I much prefer lemon.

Overall, you get what you pay for with this. It’s a third of the price of gins that I usually buy, and it’s probably just a third of the taste of any other gin in my collection.  If you like a juniper-heavy gin with none of the weird and wonderful botanicals that are used in craft gins, then this is the gin for you.

When I drank it

On a beautifuly sunny evening, what G&T’s were made for.

What I used as a garnish

Lemon or lime. I definitely recommend lemon over lime though.

Is it worth the money?

It’s a perfectly reasonable gin for £9.75. But let’s face it, who wants to drink just a perfectly reasonable gin?