Monkey 47, Empress 1908, Drumshanbo, Roku, Aviation & The Botanist: Craft Gin Brands to Know

Modern craft gin has moved well beyond the classic London Dry template, and these six brands each represent a genuinely distinctive approach worth knowing.

Monkey 47

A German gin using an unusually large botanical count (47, as the name suggests), including lingonberry and other unconventional ingredients, Monkey 47 built a cult reputation for its complex, slightly tart, meticulously balanced profile — genuinely different from most gin's juniper-dominant approach.

Empress 1908

Named for a historic hotel in Victoria, British Columbia, Empress 1908 is instantly recognizable for its striking indigo-blue color, derived from butterfly pea flower — a natural botanical that also causes the gin to shift color when mixed with acidic ingredients like citrus, making it a genuine visual novelty alongside real botanical complexity.

Drumshanbo Gunpowder Irish Gin

Incorporating gunpowder tea as a core botanical (hence the name), this Irish gin delivers a distinctive citrus-and-tea character that sets it apart from more traditional juniper-forward styles.

Roku

A Japanese gin from Suntory, Roku ("six" in Japanese) incorporates six specifically Japanese botanicals — including sakura flower, sencha tea, and yuzu peel — alongside traditional gin botanicals, for a genuinely distinct East-meets-West profile.

Aviation

An American gin developed specifically to work well in cocktails (including its namesake Aviation cocktail), Aviation leans slightly less juniper-forward than classic London Dry gin, with more floral and citrus notes designed for mixability.

The Botanist

Distilled at the Bruichladdich distillery on Islay — better known for Scotch — The Botanist incorporates 22 foraged local Islay botanicals alongside traditional gin ingredients, giving it a genuinely place-specific, terroir-driven identity unusual within gin.

Why These Matter

Each of these six brands represents a different route away from gin's classic juniper-forward template — through botanical count (Monkey 47), visual novelty (Empress 1908), regional ingredients (Drumshanbo, Roku, The Botanist), or cocktail-first design (Aviation). Trying all six is one of the more direct ways to understand how far modern gin has expanded beyond its traditional identity.