Elephant Gin Orange Cocoa Gin

About this bottle

A few things to know about Elephant Gin

Like all the other Elephant Gins, this one comes with a good deed. 15% of the profits go to foundations dedicated to protecting endangered African elephants. Every bottle contributes to protecting these gentle giants.

Botanicals in Elephant Gin Orange Cocoa

Apple, juniper and buchu

Juniper and apple have always been pillars of Elephant Gin's botanical line-up. That continues with this new variety. You'll also find buchu in the mix, a South African plant with a range of medicinal uses. Various effects are attributed to it, from repelling insects when applied to the skin to soothing the digestive system. One use in food production is apparently to create a flavour resembling blackcurrant. Smell the dried leaves and they'll remind you of fresh peppermint with a hint of fresh thyme.

Organic oranges and roasted cocoa beans

Orange peel goes into the distillation, but whole oranges are also distilled in a separate run. Lightly roasted cocoa beans are distilled too, and they're unmistakable in the gin. If you've ever tasted cocoa beans, you'll recognise that pure, almost silky, slightly buttery flavour here.

Tasting notes for Elephant Gin Orange Cocoa

On the nose

No doubt about it: gin. The smell of buchu is there too. But wait a moment and the oranges really come through, followed above all by the cocoa beans. There's a certain lightness to the aromas, without a particularly strong presence of alcohol. We are, after all, talking about ‘only’ 40% ABV.

Taste

This gin makes an immediate impression. The first, typically cool wave washes over your taste buds. The sweet fruit notes arrive straight away, followed by juniper and buchu. It's a little earthy for a moment, but only a trace. Then comes the cocoa: buttery, warm and soft, constantly alternating with the oranges, which keep trying to take centre stage in different ways. Never artificial or too dominant, more like a few string players taking turns to lead the melody. There's hardly any heat to taste. An unkind comparison would be those chocolate sticks filled with refreshing lemon and orange flavours, but I'd call it a beautifully balanced Grand Marnier chocolate.

Finish and aftertaste

The finish is a little bitter at first, then warm and full of juniper. But a trace of cocoa always remains at the end. I think that's a wonderful starting point for cocktails that can bring out this side of the gin.

Tasted with ice

A little ice brings the juniper forward, and you can find the apple's crispness. As the ice melts, cocoa moves further into the background, but the orange returns and wants to join the flavour concert.

Elephant Gin Orange Cocoa and tonic: the perfect serve

When a gin is already this intense, do you need tonic? Sure, why not? But which one? Testing is under way. Results here soon.

… with Fever-Tree Mediterranean Tonic Water

Wow, this combination feels like a creamy chocolate cake with a molten centre. The cocoa aroma is almost enough to knock you over — that's how intense it becomes with this tonic.

Thoughts on Elephant Gin Orange Cocoa

This gin isn't the classic gin you might expect. It brings very different flavours from those you'd normally associate with Elephant Gin. Even the shared base doesn't change that. The orange and cocoa bean flavours are incredibly intense and a joy to savour. Definitely a gin that also shines neat, over ice and in cocktails.

If the beautiful handwritten labels, the vibrant bands around the neck made in the traditional way by Kenyan Maasai women, and the usual elegant Elephant Gin design haven't already won you over, the flavour gives you a reason to buy this gin. You have to try it.

Elephant Gin Orange Cocoa is the Elephant Gin variant released at the end of March 2021. With a new flavour direction featuring orange and cocoa, it's not necessarily the typical botanical line-up for a gin. But if there's anywhere you can credibly bring cocoa and oranges into the mix, it's Elephant Gin, in my view: both ingredients have that sense of coming from far away.