With the arrival of summer, the holidays arrive, the heat, the terraces are filled. The festivities of the towns and cities also arrive, since around the corner we already have the San Fermines. With the high temperatures we want to drink something fresh, and almost always resort to the famous mojito or a good gintonic.If we focus on the gintonic we have in almost all local, a wide selection of gins. To me that I like Hendricks gin, because I find it refreshing at the same time tasty in this summer season. Well I recently tried this one that we will mention, for many unknown, but there is so much variety lately, as to test them all. How did this gin tell you? It has a base of roses and cucumber.It is curious when looking for information about it, I saw that not only make gin, but also make vocka, yes with 100% Dutch products.The alcohol is made of grain, and is made with 10 botanicals . The recipe is secret and dates from 1867, which was found in the zeedijk in Amsterdam, during excavations in the port area, more specifically in the cafe In't Aepjen where the only recipe was discovered, the thirteenth century levees were erected for protect from floods and after the construction of the zeedijk "dike of the sea", Amsterdam became a port and thriving commercial center, leisure area for sailors and main storage point for many kinds of cereals.

Botanists

Licorice

Cardamom

Coriander

Angelica

Juniper

Iris

Vanilla

Orange

Lemon

Essence of rose

Cucumber

FEATURED BOTANICAL

LAVENDER

Lavándula is a genus of plants in the laminaria family, which contains about 60 species of taxa and infra-specific accepted from the more than 200 described, are known as lavender alhucema, lavender or lavender, among many other names.

They are sufruticosas plants, perennial of stems of quadrangular section, general very foliosos in the part inferior, with leaves of closely laceoladas and broadly elliptical, whole, dentadas or several times divided with simple, branched and glandulifero hairs. The spiciform inflorescence, formed by verticilastros more or less nearby, often with long escapes. The bracts are different from the leaves, frequently colored, the superior ones, sometimes, very different and outstanding in plumes or crowns. The calyx has 5 small triangular teeth, the upper usually finished in a more or less elliptical appendage, in the form of a small operculum that closes the throat of the chalice. The tube of the latter presents 8-15 nerves and has no inner ring of hairs. The corolla is bilabial, lavender, lilac, blue or violet, rarely white. The upper lip has two lobes and the lower one 3, all of similar size. It has four stamens, didinamos, shorter superiors, generally not outstanding from the tube. The style is capitated. The fruit is a tetranucula, each one of ellipsoid shape, chestnut color. Wide distribution, from the Macaronesian region, throughout the Mediterranean basin and, in a dispersed way, through the northern half of Africa, the Arabian peninsula and South Asia to India. A few species have been introduced, and hybrids and cultivars in numerous countries for its intensive cultivation destined essentially to its distillation.