What type of juniper berries is considered the best to make gin?

[niccolo]

I would like to know how important the quality of the juniper berries must be in order to make a good gin.

[Panoscape]

The type of juniper berries that I think work best are the ones that can be picked fresh. Being in Central Oregon, Junipers are a weed tree that span thousands of acres in every direction. As Bend Distillery and Oregon Spirit Distillers can attest, you only need to stretch out your hand and you can pick them fresh off the tree. I can even pick them off my second story balcony at home. BD and OSD make some of the best Gin and Genever that I have tasted.

If you get them fresh off the tree then they're good and flavorful, makes for a very strong and tasty gin/genever.

If anyone wants fresh Juniper berries let me know... we can work something out, seeing I need a job for my son to do this summer. Shoot me a private message. Here is a link to the type of Juniper that grows in Oregon http://www.na.fs.fed.us/pubs/silvics_manual/Volume_1/juniperus/occidentalis.htm.

rw

[Edwin]

Juniperus Communis is the best, but I guess it is mainly European. Juniperus Virginiana is good and native to Northern America. A slightly stronger pine like smell and taste, where the Juniper C. is lighter, more subtle. Juniper Ashei is to be avoided at all times, since it can cause strong allergic reactions.

Edwin.

[bluestar]

Juniperus Communis is the best, but I guess it is mainly European. Juniperus Virginiana is good and native to Northern America.

J. communis is native to North America, too. In fact, it spans the northern half of the globe, although there are variations from region to region. The real problem is that J. communis is not as common in N.A. as the name would imply, and is not much cultivated either. Cost of labor for harvesting is a major issue, hence the predominance of Albanian and Bulgarian product.

[jwymore]

Cost of labor for harvesting is a major issue, hence the predominance of Albanian and Bulgarian product.

I was over in Bend a couple months ago and spent about 1/2 hour picking fresh Juniper. I netted about a pint of berries for my effort ..... not highly productive!!! :-)

[Artisan Still Design]

I prefer a blend of different junipers, some dried some fresh.

for fresh you can get green earlier in the year and purple into the winter. Pick fresh and freeze for use later.

I've found you get a much wider palate from using multiple sources and types.

[DTS]

For gin sold in the EU the juniper can, theoretically, only be Juniperus Communis for Gin, Dstillied Gin and London (Dry) gin:

"Gin is a juniper-flavoured spirit drink produced by flavouring organoleptically suitable ethyl alcohol of

agricultural origin with juniper berries (Juniperus communis L.)."

For some reason "Juniper flavoured spirit drinks" can have (Juniperus communis L. and/or Juniperus oxicedrus L.)

Would they be able to enforce such a rule? Doubtful - could you also get round it by adding a handful of communis and classifying the other juniper as another botanical, maybe?

source: http://eur-lex.europa.eu/LexUriServ/LexUriServ.do?uri=OJ:L:2008:039:0016:0054:EN:PDF

I think this a pretty stupid rule.

Other than communis I like occidentalis

[Cosmic.Distiller]

Reviving this old thread for some fun. Everyone previously mentioned Juniperus Communis as the type of juniper to use, but keep in mind that the same plant will taste different in different regions (think coffee beans, Costa Rican vs Ethiopian, etc). The plants produce different flavor compounds depending on what the region is like (elevation, dryness, temperature etc). Dryer and warmer regions produce more resins, from what I have heard Italian is considered the best as it has a heavy pine flavor with less of the bitter tannins that are present in colder regions. I have yet to try my local Wisconsin juniper, but most people I've talked to say midwest junipers have a bad taste. That being said, Dancing Goat makes a great gin that has Wisconsin juniper, so there's that.

Personally I prefer Bulgarian, as it has a somewhat citrus note, like lemon, that brightens a gin. California also produces a decent juniper. 

It really boils down to (pun absolutely intended) what other botanicals you are pairing it with.

[whiskeytango]

We thought about going the "local" route but the reality is the jumper communis that grows in the US is rarely if ever good.  Now I am sure someone will do the old add one local harvested berry into their recipe and say they use a local sourced juniper.  Its all marking after all..  

The biggest problem with local sourced in my eyes is just the business model.   Unless you want to be in the juniper picking business your going to spend tons of time picking.  We can routinely go thought 50-100 lbs in a month and picking that would suck.   

  

[kleclerc77]

While it's always cool to source local ingredients, juniper in the states can be questionable. There tends to be the a lot of the unmistakably ammonia (think cat pee) forward berries around, and needless to say, they create an offensive gin. I've seen it a few times with distilleries that only meant the best by harvesting their botanicals locally. That scared me straight into sourcing juniper berries from places who know what they're doing. You'd have to be super confident in your juniper ID to pick them yourself in the states. They'll hybridize like crazy too, so half the time I have no idea what I'm looking at.

We use an herb supplier we trust, and they tend to come from Italy/Macedonia. The regional differences @Cosmic.Distiller mentioned are very interesting, I'd like to dig more into that one of these days. I only get to make gin once a year though, so who knows when that will be!