Reinvention Dept: The Wheel and Magellan Gin

F. Paul Pacult calls gin "...the best of white spirits for cocktails and my favorite overall white spirit." That's saying something. Gin has all the finesse and sophistication that vodka never will. Best yet, true world class gins can be purchased in the $20 range. A very few valid wodkas (and Everclear) appear here!
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Capn Jimbo
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Reinvention Dept: The Wheel and Magellan Gin

Post by Capn Jimbo »

So much bullshit, so little time...


In all honesty, I am soooooo tired of marketing, the mavens and mavettes that make it up as they go along. This time it's - as always - the Artic Regurgitator and Magellan Gin. As per always, the predictable predator got his usual freebie and as always delivered one of his usual regurgitations of the marketing copy. Let's summarize:


1. Magellan Gin is named after, uh, Magellan.

2. The make it up as you go along department wants you to believe that it was Magellan who discovered the passage west from Spain to reach the spice islands in the far Pacific, that his crew returned with a few barrels of then precious clove, and that in sum these spices somehow led directly to the invention of gin.

3. Accordingly we now are blessed with "Magellan Gin", which of course relates this faux story, lists "clove" as the first ingredient of their gin and makes the outrageous, Wolf-certified claim:
"The spice Magellan brought back imparts an exceptional aromatic quality and flavor while adding a spicy depth. Cloves are unique to Magellan Gin. No other gin available in the world utilizes cloves."

Here's the facts and nothing but the facts...


1. Magellan returned with nothing. He did discover what is now known as the Strait of Magellan, but he never made it back. In fact, he never even made it to the "spice islands", but was speared to death in Phillipines.

2. Only one of the orginal five ships, and 18 of the original 237 men made it back, and not by returning eastward, but by continuing westward to Spain.

3. That ship was the "Victoria", not Magellan's "Trinidad", and was captained by Jaun Sebasti Elcano. It carried not a "few barrels" but 26 tons of clove and cinnamon. The remaining crew were not paid fully for their efforts. If anything this offering should be named Elcano Gin.

4. These spices had nothing whatever to do with the invention of gin, which was invented by a Dutch physician named Franciscus Sylvius and was based on the earlier used of juniper berries (genever), common in Europe and used medicinally by Italian monks. Cloves had not a facking thing to do with gin.

5. Last Magellan Gin's claim that their is the "only gin using clove" (which is their sole, precarious handle to Magellan's crew) is blatantly wrong. The first page of a Google search reveals "Butler's Gin", and I quote:
Butler's Gin: "Originally inspired by a Victorian recipe, the gin is placed in a 20-litre glass jar with infusion bags containing fresh lemongrass, cardamom, coriander, cloves, cinnamon, star anise, fennel, lemon and lime. After infusing for 18 hours it is hand-bottled."
One last note: in their seemingly unending attempt to seem different Magellan Gin is actually a light blue, as they put it: "...inspired by Magellan's travels between the blue sky and deep blue sea...". Oh yes, it's deep alright, and getting deeper. The blue is alleged to be from Iris flower petals (which are blue) which are grown in Italy - and are infused solely for their color (not taste).

My suggestion: perhaps yellow or brown petals would be more appropriate, lol... BTW the biggest lie of all is the subtitle on the label "Iris flavored gin ", a claim disputed by - of course - their own website. In a romantic description of the process, Magellan describes how the gin is infused with the botanicals - which do not include the Iris! Actually the Iris root and flower are briefly infused as a separate step just before bottling. Magellan describes the purpose: the root is alleged to act as a "binder" and the brilliant blue flower for "color". No mention of flavor at all...

Except on the label. Go figure, and call it reinvention.


STFW?

Look, we all know that there's white lies, blatant lies and then there's marketing. On this basis it's easy to assume that most of us don't pay attention. But the sad fact it, many readers - not here - ARE affected and this kind of drivel will actually motivate some of them to buy "Magellan's Gin". It is the clear goal of the The Rum Project to continue to expose ridiculous lies for as long as con artists continue to invent and or promote them via their advertisng and/or via their butt buddy "reviewers".
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