Today we’re drinking a bottle of Glen’s gin. Glen’s are known for their cheap vodka so it’s only fair to assume that their gin will be awful. Glen’s costs £12.59 for a bottle of 37.5% gin. This is £2 more expensive than the vodka so I certainly hope it tastes £2 more delicious.
Dumb little plastic lemon and accidental diet tonic water make their unwelcome return
Glen’s gin comes in a plain square bottle. I like square bottles because they don’t roll around so they’re less easy to smash. The label doesn’t contain much information and there isn’t much to make fun of other than a drawing of the houses of parliament which isn’t completely correct. I assume this gin is Glen’s vodka which has been distilled with juniper so hopefully it hasn’t developed some shitty taste in the process.
I was surprised by how not-shitty Glen’s gin smells. Rather than the expected overpowering chemical flower scent, it is much milder. It kind of smells like vodka spilled on an old person’s sofa and they tried covering up the smell with potpourri. It also smells like something which would come from a plastic bottle. Glen’s gin tastes really perfumy. It doesn’t taste massively like gin, but more like a flavoured water. It’s not necessarily a bad taste, but it isn’t something you would drink if you wanted to taste gin. It also burns a lot. When used for a gin and tonic, Glen’s tastes even weirder. It could be that I accidentally bought diet tonic water again, or the dumb little plastic lemon could be fucking things up, but it really doesn’t taste like a gin an tonic. Watering it down makes it taste even more like some shitty flavoured water (who the fuck would want Christmas tree flavoured water?) and gives it a really unpleasant taste.
Overall Glen’s gin doesn’t taste bad, but it doesn’t really taste like gin either. It’s OK as a cheap drink if you’re mixing it, but it doesn’t work in a gin and tonic. The fact that it doesn’t taste very ginny straight and can’t be used in a gin and tonic means that you’re going to have to treat is like a more expensive, less versatile vodka. It would make more sense to buy the cheaper Glen’s Vodka and get a good mixer than it would to buy Glen’s Gin.
Booze Review rating: 5/10 deliciouses
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You weren’t helping with the diet tonic- might just as well be seltzer and call it a day.
Recently in Gibraltar I purchased a litre of Glens for £3.25! (at that price I was prepared to clean the drains with it if it was naff).
I was pleasantly surprised, it was reasonably smooth and while not up there with Bombay or Beefeater I would say it gives Gilbeys and even Gordons a run for its money (certainly beats most own store brands). Shame I did not get a few more bottles!