The Duchess is a drink that was ‘invented’ by Johannes Le Roux, a South African from Cape Town. When Johannes walked around Amsterdam in the summer of 2016, he noticed two trends in the hip Dutch city. On the one hand he saw the great rise of Gin & Tonic, on the other hand he noticed a trend to eat and drink healthier, alcohol-free and low in sugar. It was there that the idea arose to combine these two trends in one drink: a healthy, low-sugar and alcohol-free Gin & Tonic. Together with good friend Inus Smuts, a recipe was created. A tonic was made with redistilled juniper and a lot of locally produced botanicals. The styling of the bottle is inspired by typical Dutch drawings in ‘Delft Blue’. A mysterious duchess became the symbol of the brand.
For the lazy bartender
The Duchess was the first non-alcoholic Gin & Tonic on the market. Whether you can really use the name Gin-Tonic is a personal choice. Some brands that produce an alcohol-free distillate absolutely want to avoid using the name alcohol-free Gin, but at The Duchess they resolutely opt to call their drink Gin & Tonic.
Such a pre-mixed Gin-Tonic naturally has some advantages. As a host or bartender, you no longer have to work with different bottles to mix the Gin and Tonic at a crowded party or in a busy café. When you have all the time in the world to make you a delicious mocktail on a quiet Saturday evening, you might enjoy it to spend some time mixing your creation, on some occasions every time saving is included. We ourselves think that preparing your drink is an essential part of enjoying a mocktail or, if you like, an alcohol-free Gin & Tonic. Choosing the right tonic, playing with the correct amount of alcohol-free distillate that you add can sometimes be elevated to an almost sacred ritual. However, we can imagine that there are people who would prefer it without all that fuss. The Duchess G&T is a perfect alternative for them.
Tonic ++
When you consider yourself a professional bartender who proudly wants to prepare his perfect mix, you can stop reading now, because this drink will probably not be able to charm you. If you prefer to keep it a bit simple, The Duchess is a gift from heaven. There are many quality tonics on the market today, all of which are presented in a classy-looking bottle. Also the design of the bottle and the label of The Duchess radiate that you are not dealing with a simple soda you have to drink out of the bottle after some physical effort. Here The Duchess is hardly different from another tonic. The taste will therefore have to convince us that The Duchess has something more to offer than the umpteenth tonic.
And it soon becomes clear that The Duchess has more flavour to offer than a normal tonic. Of course you can taste the tonic, but the juniper is also prominent, which means that this tonic clearly distinguishes itself. The fact that The Duchess is not very sweet, helps the fact that you never really get the impression that you are just drinking a tonic. We would therefore like to give The Duchess the label tonic + or tonic ++. Because the drink has just that extra bit more flavour, you will almost be forced to drink it at ease. The Duchess comes in three flavours: Botanical, Floral and Greenery. We tasted the Botanical, but very soon we certainly want to taste what the other two have to offer.
Always have some in the fridge
In our opinion, the biggest asset of The Duchess is that you can buy four bottles for the price of four bottles of normal tonic. If you do not often drink alcohol-free yourself, but still want something in your fridge to serve when one of your guests wants to drink alcohol-free, a ‘four-pack’ The Duchess is the ideal solution. This way you do not have to buy a more expensive bottle of non-alcoholic alternative to Gin and you will certainly not disappoint the invitee who wants to drink non-alcoholic drink.
