Flavour Files spotlights one flavour camp and how it unfolds across spirits, liqueurs, and modifiers offering a lens into its versatility, personality, and creative potential. This edition features spirits that bloom with botanicals, blossoms, and aromatic elegance.

Design, Photography & Words By: Reece Sims

1) Sheringham Beacon Gin (43% ABV)

Sheringham Beacon Gin, formerly known as Kazuki Gin, is a spirit rooted in place and memory. Its new name pays tribute to two iconic Vancouver Island landmarks: the Sheringham Point Lighthouse near the original distillery and the cherry blossom-lined paths of Beacon Hill Park. This gin captures the lightness and clarity of both, offering a polished and expressive take on a floral-forward dry style.

Crafted with hand-harvested cherry blossoms, locally grown green tea leaves, and traditional botanicals, this gin opens with soft waves of florals and fruit. Notes of yuzu and grapefruit brighten the profile, while the tea and flowers lend a gentle herbaceous finish.

2) Dillon’s Rose Gin (35% ABV)

Dillon’s Rose Gin is a modern twist on a traditional dry gin, offering a subtle kiss of sweetness and a floral flourish. Distilled from 100% Ontario-grown rye, it begins as a classic dry style gin, then is infused with rose hips and rose petals to create its delicate pink hue and soft, romantic aroma.

The flavour is crisp and juniper-led at its core, with gentle layers of rose, citrus, and a touch of warming spice. Lightly sweetened to round out the florals, it strikes a thoughtful balance—never cloying, never perfumed.

In cocktails, Dillon’s Rose Gin plays beautifully in both shaken and stirred formats. It adds a floral dimension to a G&T, shines in a French 75, and can bring an unexpected softness to classics like the Negroni or Martinez.

3) Glendalough Wild Rose Irish Gin (41% ABV)

Glendalough Wild Rose Gin is a heartfelt tribute to the master distiller’s late mother, inspired by the roses she lovingly tended in her garden. The gin features three varieties of roses: wild roses from the Wicklow mountains, heritage Damask roses, and those from her original rose beds.

Each is handpicked and slowly distilled to preserve its natural beauty and complexity. Bright, expressive, and emotionally rooted, it shines in spritzes, floral sours, and elegant gin and tonics with grapefruit.

4) Hibiki Harmony (43% ABV)

Hibiki Harmony is more than a blended whisky, it’s a study in balance and subtlety, crafted to reflect the art of Japanese harmony in both name and composition. Created by Suntory, it brings together malt and grain whiskies from the Yamazaki, Hakushu, and Chita distilleries, aged in a variety of casks including American oak, sherry, and Mizunara. The result is a whisky that feels deliberate and seamless, with each element supporting the whole. While designed to be sipped neat, Hibiki Harmony also excels in spirit-forward cocktails. It brings depth to an Old Fashioned, pairs beautifully with plum liqueurs, or adds a floral backbone to a highball. This is a whisky that doesn’t demand attention, it rewards it.

5) Komos Reposado Rosa

The name “Komos” comes from ancient Greek revelry—a celebration of life and luxury. Komos Reposado Rosa is a unique tequila expression that blurs the line between spirit and fine wine. Made from 100 per cent blue Weber agave and aged in a combination of French oak red wine barrels and neutral oak, it carries a pale pink hue and a remarkably elegant profile. The rosé-tinted colour is subtle, but the flavour is anything but. It’s floral, silky, and softly expressive.

While Rosa can be used in high-end cocktails, it’s best appreciated neat, where its nuance and softness can really shine. Expect creamy textures, floral elegance, and a finish that lingers like a late-summer sunset.

6) Meukow VSOP (40% ABV)

Meukow VSOP is a refined, expressive Cognac that balances richness with surprising floral elegance. Known for its sleek panther bottle and velvety texture, this VSOP is aged longer than required, allowing its complex aromatics to fully develop. Beyond the expected notes of dried fruit, vanilla, and spice, it opens with a soft floral lift—think orange blossom, dried rose, and a hint of honeysuckle.

These floral tones add a graceful layer to the spirit’s warm, rounded profile. On the palate, you’ll find a silky blend of caramelized pear, almond, and baking spice, with those delicate blossoms weaving through each sip. It’s smooth, structured, and aromatic, making it ideal for sipping neat in a proper snifter glass where its layers can unfold.

7) Fever Tree Elderflower & Mediterranean Tonics

Fever Tree Elderflower tonic brings a soft, floral sweetness to the classic bitter backbone of quinine. Infused with handpicked elderflowers from Gloucestershire, it adds a gentle perfume of spring blossoms and fresh green notes without overwhelming the palate. It pairs especially well with floral and citrus-led gins, elderflower liqueurs, or as a bubbly lift in low-ABV spritzes.

Designed to complement lighter gins and vermouths, Fever Tree Mediterranean Tonic is infused with lemon thyme, rosemary, and other herbs sourced from the coasts of Provence. It’s more savoury and rounded than traditional tonic, with a gentle bitterness and soft citrus finish. This tonic pairs beautifully with herbaceous or citrus-forward spirits, making it ideal for gin and tonics, white vermouth spritzes, or aperitivo-style cocktails.

*Fever Tree Mediterranean and Elderflower Tonics*

8) Giffard Crème de Violette (16% ABV)

Giffard Crème de Violette is a floral liqueur that captures the natural perfume of violets without tipping into artificial or overpowering territory. Produced in France by the Giffard family, this liqueur is crafted using a two-step process: maceration of fresh violet petals followed by steam distillation of violet leaves, which gives Crème de Violette its unique and balanced flavour.

The liqueur pours a deep violet but delivers a surprisingly subtle and fresh profile on the palate. The flavour is soft and floral with notes of candied violet, rosewater, and a gentle green undertone that adds freshness. It is sweet but not cloying, and the floral character lingers lightly without becoming soapy or perfumed. This balance makes it especially versatile for bartenders looking to layer floral notes into classic or modern cocktails like an Aviation or a sour.

9) The Japanese Bitters - Sakura Bitters

Hanami, bottled. These small-batch bitters are a fragrant ode to Japan’s fleeting spring—where cherry blossoms bloom, drift, and disappear in a matter of weeks. Built around Yae Sakura petals from Nagano and leaves pickled in ocean salt from Izu, this floral blend is a breath of fresh air: delicate, woodsy, and quietly herbal. Try it in a gin highball, sake spritz, Pisco sour, or Old Fashioned riff with a floral twist.

Flavour Files: Floral Edition