Australia has it’s own unique flavors and scents. You’ll notice it rather quickly. Everything from hotel soaps and shampoos to flowers on the street.
They’re just different.
Everything is just a little different, and those differences are where the magic hides.
Take gin, for instance.
Australian gin has Australian botanicals that are unlike anything else on earth. If you enjoy gin, you’re probably finding the same flavors you’re used to. Some juniper and a few others that got thrown into vats at huge gin producers that crank out millions of bottles every year. Some get fancy and drop in some food coloring, but for the most part, most gins taste the same.
Not shaken OR stirred.
But Australian gin is a thing. It’s own thing and unless you’ve wandered the land down under, or read my stuff, you’d never know.
Australian gin rocks.
Tasmanian pepper berry.
Toasted Wattle Seeds.
You see where I’m going here.
Not stuff you can find at the Mega Gin Factory in Iowa.
These are flavors that will haunt you for days. The Wattle Seed especially. I smelled a bowl of Wattle Seed and it had a hint of coffee with a unique finishing twist that I couldn’t identify. It stays in your memory for days and you want to taste it again.
The Signature Gin from Banks and Solander has Wattle Seed.
I brought back a bottle in my suitcase, and last night, my daughter, Marlo, and I had a couple of G&Ts by the pool at my hotel in Long Beach (a brief respite before the final leg home to Austin), and her eyes went wide with the first taste.
This is not like any G&T you’ve ever tasted.
Tasmanian Pepper Berry.
Wattle Seed.
And a dozen other uniquely Australian plants take this to an entirely new level.
And did I mention Finger Lime Caviar?
I’ll do that now.
I spent time with another gin maker up in the Blue Mountains outside Sydney who has a whole farm full of strange little Finger Lime trees.
Imagine this, if you will.
A bottle of gin, tall, glass, imposing, with little floating, light green orbs that suspend magically. You make a G&T in the usual way, but now it’s got these magical little green beachballs floating in the cocktail. When you take a sip, these little green caviar pop in your mouth and give you real lime juice and gin in each.
Finger Limes look like little pickles, but break one open and it’s full of little BBs. That’s the flesh of the lime. Instead of what you expect the inside of a lime to be, they’re little balls. Lee Etherington with Wild Hibiscus Distilling grows these wonderful little treats and figured out how to get them to float in gin.
It’s pure alchemy. And quite delicious.
These flavors don’t happen anywhere else.
The True Flavors of Australia.
This is worth doing something with. I did a logo, and I’m going to go bug someone at the Australian Tourist Bureau or the Australian Commerce Department to do something with this.
C’mon Australia, you have something really special here. Do something cool with it!
I spent an afternoon wandering around Circular Quay in Sydney. It’s a well-packed tourist zone that wraps around a big harbor. All day, tour boats come and go and the Sydney Opera House is out on the point. There are a dozen restaurants lining the harbor and every one of them should feature foods and drinks that highlight The True Flavors of Australia and have my little logo on the menu.
I’ll even give y’all the logo!
I don’t know if we can ever get these flavors into the USA. Bringing in spirits is a rather onerous experience. Every state has different rules and for small producers, it’s pretty tough.
But seriously, people. It’s worth it. Taste new flavors. Open up your universe a bit and live!
The True Flavors of Australia. It’s a thing so let’s make it a thing.
