FIRST JOURNEYS - EASTERN EUROPEAN EXPEDITION- PIN 09 OF 17

A ROAD TRIP WHERE EVERY STOP HAS A STORY

I have to admit, when I first picked up Juniperus Gin in Bratislava, I thought I was simply adding another Slovak gin to the collection.


To be fair, I got rather excited when I walked into a small shop and found a whole wall of gin — much of it from local brands I'd never heard of. None of it was terribly expensive, so I wasn't expecting to uncover any great treasures. I took the recommendation of the lovely shop owner, gathered a few bottles into my arms and handed over my cash. Job done.



It was only when I started looking into some of my purchases that I realised this particular gin was sitting on top of more than a century of Slovak juniper history.


The name Juniperus is the scientific name for juniper, so there isn't exactly a cryptic clue to solve. But in this case, juniper isn't just one botanical among many. It is the thread running through the history of the brand and, more broadly, through one of Slovakia's traditional spirits: borovička.


If you've never heard of borovička, don't worry. I hadn't given it much thought either. It is a clear, juniper-flavoured spirit traditional to Slovakia and neighbouring parts of Central Europe. It isn't gin, although the obvious presence of juniper makes the comparison tempting. The important difference is that borovička has its own identity and production tradition, with juniper distillate at its heart. The protected specification for Trenčianska borovička JUNIPERUS describes it as a juniper-flavoured spirit drink made using aged juniper spirit, neutral spirit and liquid sugar.


The Distillery behind Juniperus is Old Herold and they trace the production of Juniperus borovička in Trenčín back to 1905, when a distillery was established making borovička alongside liqueurs, cognac and fruit spirits.  Its best-known product became the Juniperus borovička, at the time even described as “medicinal”.


During the period of the First Czechoslovak Republic, Juniperus was being exported as far as the United States. In December 1936, the Juniperus trademark was registered at the Patent Office in Prague. So although the bottle I'm holding is a modern gin, the name on it has been travelling around for a very long time.


There is even an official geographical connection. Trenčianska borovička “JUNIPERUS” is protected as a geographical indication, recognising the particular tradition associated with its production in the Trenčín area. The EU registration describes it as a clear, colourless juniper-flavoured spirit with a pronounced juniper character.


So when Old Herold talks about having been masters of processing juniper for more than 100 years, in this case it isn't just a line dreamed up for the label.

There really is a century-plus of juniper sitting behind the name and somewhere along the way, gin came came into it.




Rather than abandon the old Juniperus identity and start another brand from scratch, Old Herold put that accumulated knowledge of juniper to work in a new direction: Juniperus Gin, a London Dry launched as a modern addition to the historic range.


What resulted was nine botanicals and a very deliberate nod to the old spirit.


Old Herold describes Juniperus Gin as the combination of two slowly distilled macerates, both prepared from a juniper base with herbs and spices. Alongside juniper and orange and lemon peel are wormwood, angelica, liquorice, cardamom, coriander and orris. That makes nine botanicals in total, hence the rather cheerful slogan “Nine herbs, one joy.”


It is a pretty classic collection on paper, but there are a few ingredients that make it more interesting. Wormwood brings bitterness and herbal depth; angelica adds that earthy, rooty character you find in plenty of traditional gin recipes; cardamom and coriander bring the spice; and orris helps tie the botanical profile together.


They have classified it as a London Dry gin which has a strong backbone of juniper.


They've had some recognition for the result.  Juniperus Gin won the gin category at the Carpathian Quality Trophy 2023, with Old Herold taking the category win.


The bit I find most interesting isn't the medal.  It's the fact that Juniperus Gin isn't pretending to be something it isn't. In an increasingly crowded gin world, where brands often seem determined to find the most unusual botanical, the most remote ingredient or the most elaborate origin story, this one has a much simpler starting point.

Juniper.


Lots of it.


For more than a century, the distillers of Trenčín have been working with juniper to make borovička. Now that same Juniperus name sits on a London Dry gin, with the old knowledge of juniper brought into a different style of spirit, which makes this bottle feel rather different from the average new gin.



So, yes, I bought a gin — but somewhere along the way I ended up discovering borovička too.


And that, for me, is the joy of chasing gin around the world: there is almost always another story hiding behind the bottle.

"A century-old Slovak spirit tradition, reimagined as gin"




"Show me a bottle

and I'll tell you a story."