Beefeater Crown Jewel was presented to a gathering of bartenders and friends, at Gin Lovers Principe Real.
Despite being a novelty in Portugal, Beefeater Crown Jewel is actually a re-edition of the Crown Jewel launched by Beefeater in 1993. In effect, it would have been the first premium Gin, on a par with Bombay Sapphire, at the time, both aimed at the duty free market.
This “new” Crown Jewel remains faithful to the original recipe, an evolution from Beefeater Dry Gin .
To the nine botanicals in Beefeater Dry Gin have been added grapefruit, and diluted has been reduced so that Crown Jewel, with 50%vol, has a significantly higher alcohol content than Beefeater Dry Gin.
Since it is an evolution of the original Beefeater recipe, Crown Jewel is simultaneously the base for the making of Beefeater 24, the Gin which came to substitute it in 2009. To the ten botanicals used in Crown Jewel, Desmond Payne added two new ones: Japanese Sencha tea and Chinese green tea.
The new bottle, similar to the other bottles of the English brand, is inspired by the Tower of London, seeking to invoke the old legend that the monarchy will fall if the Ravens ever leave the Tower. Thus the figure of a Raven landing on the royal orb that is the O in Crown has centre stage on the label. On the sides of the bottle are inscribed the names of eight Ravens that inhabit the Tower of London. Despite a few alterations, the bottle is similar to the one that was discontinued in 2009, but its purple glass makes it very different to the original clear bottle.
One last thing to mention is that Crown Jewel is a limited edition - the batch number for each bottle is found on the back label.
It is available in Gin Lovers online shop.