Review: Koval Cranberry Gin

A few years ago I was looking for a good holiday cocktail to bring to a family gathering when I saw a bottle of Koval Cranberry Gin sitting on the shelf and, after a quick internet search, found a really promising recipe that uses it as the star ingredient. I grabbed that bottle, threw it in my checked luggage, and brought it along for what turned out to be a very popular cocktail. While that one cocktail was enough to justify a repeat purchase, I had never tried it in any other format (besides a slight variation of the Cranberry Gin Spritz from the Koval site I found) — but this year, I decided to experiment more with my new bottle and share my thoughts.

History

Chicago has a long and storied history when it comes to alcohol, with a particularly bloody period during the 1920’s and 1930’s. When prohibition began, it wiped out all the city’s distilleries and, for the next half century, the city’s alcohol consumption was fueled by imports (of the illegal kind during Prohibition, and the legal kind afterwards) from other states and countries.

That all changed in 2008 when Dr. Robert Birnecker and his wife Sonat decided to quit their academic jobs and start the first (legal / official) distillery in Chicago since prohibition. The name “Koval” comes from a yiddish phrase meaning “black sheep”, which is a designation Robert’s grandfather earned when he left the family home in Vienna in the early 1900’s to start a new business in Chicago. The couple decided that the name was appropriate for their new business as well.

Koval seems to embody a truly craft approach, using local ingredients and a highly controlled process focused on producing award-winning spirits. From their website:

Embracing the grain-to-bottle mentality, each step of the spirit-making process is thoughtfully monitored: beginning with contracting local farmers to grow the grain, to on-site milling and mashing, to finally distilling, bottling, and packaging. After numerous international awards and Robert at the helm of consulting for the burgeoning craft industry, KOVAL has grown to be one of America’s leading small batch, independent spirit manufacturers.

https://www.koval-distillery.com/newsite/about-us

The Koval distillery remains privately owned, and focuses on single barrel whiskey production.

Product

• Learn More: What Is Gin?

All of the grains used in Koval’s spirits are sourced from local organic and non-GMO farmers. I’m not entirely sure what grains go into the liquor — but with gin starting as a neutral grain spirit, I’m not sure it matters. Whatever the grain happens to be, it is milled on site, allowing the distillery to carefully monitor the process and get just the right size and consistency for their purpose.

Once the grains are milled, they are cooked to convert the starches into sugars and then fermented by adding yeast to the mixture. The liquid is then distilled in a custom-built Kothe pot and column still, designed to be as green as possible during the distillation process by re-capturing the water used during distillation to ensure minimal waste.

Once the neutral spirit has been produced, it’s infused with various botanical elements. 

Their dry gin uses a blend of 13 signature botanicals, and their website lists some of the following: juniper, wildflowers, emerald grass, golden citrus, and white pepper. They either don’t list all of the botanicals used, or they cannot count. (I would assume the latter is more likely, although I love the idea of a mystery ingredient.)

To finish the creation of this gin, the folks at Koval add some organic cane sugar and cranberry concentrate sourced from the bogs of Michigan. 

Packaging

On it’s own, the bottle is nothing special. It’s something that I am sure you’ve seen before: a short bottle with straight walls, and stout shoulders tapering to the neck. The stopper is a synthetic black cork that fits tight and gives a satisfying pop when you remove it.

They use the same bottle with slight label variations for their entire line of products, and those differences are often very creative. While a single bottle has a somewhat boring shape, their entire product portfolio lined up across a shelf is something to behold. In this case, the whole is greater than the sum of its parts. 

The label on this version might be my favorite part of the bottle. It’s an art-deco pattern that feels very holiday inspired, and leverages a lot of empty space to allow the bright red of the cranberry gin play a role in the label. 

The front carries the distillery name and product type, and declares proudly, “distilled in Chicago”.  The font is clean, and overall the bottle is very well done.

Neat

Taking in the aroma, you get many of the standard notes you would expect from a typical gin: strong juniper, spruce, and other botanicals. However, the most prominent aroma is very sweet cranberry fruit. Given the color of the liquid, I honestly think I would have been disappointed if this hadn’t smelled at least a little like a freshly cracked bottle of Ocean Spray.

The first sip is exceptionally pleasant. While it may have the aroma of Ocean Spray, it does not have the harsh tartness of cranberry juice — that typical tartness is nicely blunted by the sweetness from the cane sugar and makes for an enjoyable experience. You also can clearly taste the gin base; juniper, pine, a lemon-lime citrus, and other botanicals are there just behind the cranberry.

While I don’t love cranberry juice, I really like this. It’s well balanced, with neither the gin botanicals nor the cranberry overpowering the other and doesn’t make you pucker up from tartness either. It drinks very smoothly with no burn at all. 

This gin goes down very easy and could quickly get dangerous if you are not measuring out your drinks.

On Ice

This gin is unfortunately not as great on ice as it was drinking it neat. 

I think what’s going on here is that the added ice cuts the sugar content a bit, causing it to drop out of solution and become a less sweeter version of itself. That sweetness was what was improving the saturation of the cranberry flavor and really making it stand out. Without the sugar, we are left with a slightly sweet gin with a hollow cranberry flavor. The gin flavors do come forward very nicely, and actually makes me think I should go try Koval’s dry gin at some point.

The positive here is that if the spirit was still too tart for you neat, the ice mellows out the tartness even further as well. 

Just like it was neat, the gin drinks very easily. It’s smooth and has zero burn. But unlike drinking this neat, now the wonderful rich cranberry that is core to this gin is washed out. I will personally be keeping ice away from this spirit from now on.

Fizz (Cranberry Gin Spritz)

I originally experienced this gin in the Koval created cranberry gin spritz. However, I quickly began to experiment with removing the soda water and just using gin and prosecco (essentially a variation on a French 75) – and this is now one of our go-to cocktails around the holidays.

• 2oz Koval Cranberry Gin, chilled
• Top with prosecco
• Garnish with citrus

That’s it. You don’t need any simple syrup because of the sweetness of the gin. I just build it directly in my champagne flute and go on with my holiday celebrations. 

(Now, I know this is likely obvious: this cocktail will only be as good or as bad as your prosecco. If you decide to use a leftover bottle JFJ sparkling wine that was given to you as a welcome gift when you checked into your Cancun resort, you are going to have a bad time. Plan accordingly.)

As far as the flavors go, just like the gin itself, it’s very smooth. The actual underlying gin flavors seem to be overwhelmed by the prosecco, which means that in terms of a flavor profile you are left with really nice (or terrible, if you bought bottom shelf bubbles) cranberry prosecco. The lemon I used to garnish also brought some wonderful fresh citrus flavors that helped bring some brightness to the cocktail and is highly recommended. It’s a light and effervescent cocktail that will liven up any holiday party.

When I first started making these, I would shake the gin over ice to chill it. After tasting the gin on the rocks, though, I’ve seen how ice impacts the flavor. Now I keep the bottle of gin chilled, so I can skip the ice all together and am rewarded with a richer cranberry flavor for my effort. 

Cocktail (Gin & Tonic)

I love a gin and tonic, especially when I am at an airport. So I couldn’t help myself, I had to try a cranberry gin and tonic. And I must admit: this is a delicious cocktail.

While the prosecco in the previous cocktail seems to hide the gin flavors, adding tonic instead helps to make them pop. You get all of the bold botanicals, plus the cranberry, plus the bright bitterness from the tonic water. 

I think that I still prefer the spritz/ French 75 better, but this is a close runner up and will be the go-to when the bubbles are gone.

Overall Rating

I only pull out this bottle over the holidays. I’m not sure if it’s because it’s the only good time to use a cranberry gin, or if I am just not the kind of guy to casually sip a cranberry French 75 from a bottle that looks like it’s dressed for a Great Gatsby inspired Christmas party any other time of the year. I’d like to think its because we tend to create traditions during this holiday season, and this has become one of ours. 

I should also note: this does have a shelf life. I don’t know exactly what it is… but I can tell you that the third of a bottle we had left over from last year was a duller red in color and tasted very bitter. (Out of morbid curiosity, I did try to add prosecco just to see what would happen. It turned a rust red color and tasted awful.) So live it up if you get a bottle and make sure it’s gone before the decorations go back into the attic for the next 11 months. 

All reviews are evaluated within the context of their specific spirit classification as specified above. Click here to check out similar spirits we have reviewed.

Overall Rating: 5/5
The perfect gin for your holidays — and it sure beats drinking eggnog from a Wally World mug with cousin Eddie.