Dutch courage and Indonesian spirit

The story goes that Jacobus “Bobby” Alfons migrated from Indonesia to the Netherlands in 1950 and began infusing his own Jenever - Gin hybrid with Indonesian spices. Then, in 2012, his grandson Sebastian van Bokkel finds an old bottle in his grandmother’s house, asks questions, and sets out to reproduce the recipe. Bobby’s Schiedam Dry Gin is a product of Herman Janson of Schiedam who have been making liquors in the Netherlands since 1777.

They go to a bit of trouble to make Bobby’s Dry. There are a total of eight botanicals, but each one is infused and distilled separately. That adds quite a bit of control over the process, but takes longer. And In case you were wondering, those botanicals include lemongrass, clove, coriander, cubeb pepper, cinnamon, rose hips, fennel, and it just would not be Gin without a helping of juniper.

They say that Bobby's Schiedam Dry Gin is a recipe for “Dutch courage and Indonesian spirit” and we’ll buy that.