This is probably the hardest gin review I’ve had to write on this site yet…. It’s not that I dislike Opihr gin, because I don’t, it’s delicious, it’s just that it didn’t leave me wanting more.

I was attracted to Opihr because of the bottle. It looks impressive. The chunky clear glass bottle with the ornate elephant design, the beautiful font on the label, the red rope around the neck of the bottle and the crest above the name all make Opihr gin look regal and you can’t fail to be impressed buy it. My mum recently visited me and spotted the bottle in the kitchen. She made me promise that I would keep the bottle to re-use once it was empty.

As a sucker for gins with a cork stopper, and Opihr doesn’t disappoint with the lovely sound of a bottle uncorking as you pull it out. Once you decant the gin, the spice infusions become really apparent. I picked up cumin but I’m sure there are many, many others.

I wasn’t sure what to drink Opihr with, so I tried it with some Naturally Light Fever Tree tonic first of all. You can really taste the spices in the gin, it almost warms your mouth as you drink. It’s a very different gin experience, but certainly not an unpleasant one. It’s hearty, that’s the only word I can use to describe it. It’s almost filling, and I think that’s why I could never manage more than two glasses of it.

I also tried Opihr with ginger ale (this is Gin with Ginger after all), but for me there was just too much going on in my mouth.

My other dilemma with Opihr was the garnish issue. I just could not find anything to add to my glass that added to the taste, but yet for me it felt wrong to drink it purely with tonic or ginger ale and ice. I tried a red chilli but that added nothing to the taste and I tried lime, but the citrus just didn’t do it for me. The best I found was inspired by the infusions in the gin, and I tried a little sprig of fresh coriander. It complimented the flavours, but just didn’t have the eye-candy appeal of a big chunk of fruit or a big red chilli.

For me, Opihr is definitely a gin that you would drink if you stopped off in a bar for a quick drink. The taste is something that is unlike any other gin I’ve tried, but you just can’t drink a lot of it. I prefer a gin that you can drink all night, so Opihr isn’t a gin that I would buy again. However, that doesn’t mean I don’t like it – it would sit in my cupboard until I really fancied a glass of it, but would be like the kid who gets picked last for sports at school, and I’d reach for the Bathtub Gin or Hendrick’s.

When I drank it

At home in the evenings

What I used as a garnish

Red chilli, lime or coriander – all quite ‘meh’

Is it worth the money?

Personally not for me. If you were entertaining though, this would be the perfect gin to serve to your guests. You can buy it online here