Hayman's Old Tom Gin

I'm a gin fan and a cocktail lover. I purchased a bottle of Hayman's to explore the Old Tom style. I've enjoyed the Barr Hill products and even barrel aged my own gins, but the true Old Tom has been absent from my experiences. Time to change that. Tasted neat from a NEAT glass. Also sampled in a number of cocktails including a traditional Martinez. On the nose this is sweet, medicinal and ethanol forward. There's really nothing about the aromas in the glass that hint at any complexity or special flavoring. On the palate the taste is nothing more than nondescript "gin" botanicals with a sweetener. This isn't something I want to drink neat, but on ice it might be acceptable straight. In a Martinez I found this too sweet and simultaneously too thin. This surprised me as this is the traditional recipe for the Martini predecessor. I tried it with Dolin, Cocchi di Torino and Martini & Rossi. Honestly, the premium M&R Reserva Especial Rubino vermouth was the most balanced and pleasant in this cocktail - likely because its less sweet than most contemporary Italian vermouths aimed at a whisky market. I much prefer a genever or something like a Barr Hill Tomcat aged gin in this type of simple cocktail. The same can be said of the Negroni. HOT is often just too sweet for my tastes. In a gin and tonic I found the sweetness diluted, but then there wasn't any real structure for the rest of the gin and the drink was unbalanced. This gin found its best use in gin-and-juice drinks. It was excellent in a White Lady and in a Gin Sour. Superb in a traditional Tom Collins. Absolutely fine with fresh squeezed ruby grapefruit. None of these are amplified enough by this gin to merit another bottle purchase for me. This is good, but I find there are other options that can do what this gin does in ways more interesting to my palate. I rate on a bell curve scale where most competently made mass-market products will likely score between 2 and 3. Above 3 are excellent liquors and above 4 are the very best. This is one that scores in the average.

Nose: Lemon and orange aromas - juice, zest, peel - at the beginning that's about all you can smell. After a while it shows a floral icing-sugar fragrance but the nose remains steadfastly centered on citrus. After a long time (and in the dry glass) there is some herbal complexity with lemon thyme and citronella appearing, but the juniper is light here. Palate: Very sweet and soft arrival with citrus flavours - orange, sherbet lemon, sweet lime, mandarin and a trace note of juniper way in the background. Less herbal on the palate than the nose but some mild warm spices do appear. The texture is thick and syrupy, plush and almost cloying. Finish: Medium. Sweet and citrus to the very end. If you handed me this blind and said it was a subtle lemon/orange liqueur I'd believe you, it's so sweet and easy to sip neat. You can instantly see how people lapped this up as a neat spirit in the old days. It is a very confectionery sort of profile - like lemon candy or lemon frosted spongecake. The hefty sugar presence makes for a very gentle and rolling finish, but as a mixer I'm on the fence about this. It does make a palatable and easy sipping gin and tonic (no citrus needed - just tonic) but it lacks the intensity of juniper I like. Texture is what this spirit has going for it so if used in cocktails that require syrup, try leaving that out - there may be enough sweetness from the gin and you might find your usual sweet cocktail gains a pleasantly dry aspect at the expense of some heft in the flavour profile. I'd recommend experimenting with old-time cocktails but it does not work so well as the base for a martini, it's too sweet. On the whole I enjoyed this gin. "Above Average" : 80/100 (3 stars)

The last time I bought a bottle of Hayman's Old Tom Gin I was just getting into gin and I was exploring the vast range of taste and flavors in the gin world. Hayman's has a soft citrus tone to it and it seems to me to be a great hot weather gin. It makes a really good Gimlet and GT but not a very good Martini. When I made a Martini and added any vermouth the gin disappeared. I have a category of gins that I call "Gins for People that do not like Gin". These gins include Hayman's and Aviation Gin. They are light flavors and can be mixed with nearly anything to make a good drink. but they do not have the traditional juniper notes or the herbal hits as well. I do recommend this for a home bar and when I have space I keep a bottle of this or Aviation for my friends that think they do not like any gin what so ever. I prefer either Roku or Drumshanbo Gunpowder Gin and can't recommend either of them highly enough.

Old tom gin (a sweetened gin) was originally created to hide the awful taste of inferior gin. I wouldn't go out of my way to drink an old tom gin neat, but this is one of the better one's out there. The nose has a bit of pine needles and juniper. On the palate the sweetness hits you first, followed by some citrus notes and the juniper finds its way in there at the end. The finish is short but not too hot. Drinking this neat is pretty uneventful. It's in no way bad, just boring. However, as a cocktail ingredient this is one of best old tom gins out there. I always have this stocked at my home bar and unless the cocktail recipe calls for an aged old tom gin (think Ransom), I use this one. The value is also hard to beat, you can get this for under $25. Overall, I would give this a 3 neat and a 4 if using it in cocktails, so I will take the average and go with a 3.5.

This is great stuff... Drank it neat...It has a lot of sweetness and the after taste has a good depth...Its my first old Tom and I really enjoyed it... It's an 8 or 9 /10 for me overall.. It has an interesting kick in...then the sweetness takes over with floral notes in the background...has a quite good balance of alcohol and sweetness, but ideally, i would prefer a bit more alcohol in the mix. The aftertaste doesn t remind me of a gin cause its very sweet and it's low on juniper...The floral notes and the sweetness dominate the flavor.. Great value for money.. definitely buy it again

Might be my favorite gin — the juniper comes through well, but it is not overly piney; it is nicely floral and also citrusy. Perfect for sipping, a martini, or a gin and tonic. My favorite way to take it: 2 oz. gin, a can of Fever Tree Light Tonic, and a couple dashes of Regan’s Orange Bitters, garnished with an orange peel (and a grapefruit peel when I’ve got it).