Grove 42

Four kinds of citrus go into Grove 42. Bitter orange, blood orange, lemon and mandarin, sharpened with lemongrass and ginger, then finished with Japanese sansho peppercorn. That last botanical is the one doing the heavy lifting. Sansho brings a cool tingling prickle rather than heat, and it's what stops the whole thing from reading like orange cordial. The finish comes out bright and genuinely dry. Seedlip doesn't sweeten its spirits, so there's no sugar and no calories here, and the 700ml bottle works out to somewhere around 12 to 14 drinks. Of the four bottles in the range this is the most immediately useful if you mostly build highballs. Top it with tonic or soda and add a grapefruit twist, or reach for it where a recipe wants a citrus-forward gin or an orange liqueur. Build it over plenty of ice and drink it cold, since it shows best when it's sharp.