Strykk Not R*M

Fabulous on the nose…the minute I unstopper the beautiful heavy glass bottle I’m hit by notes of caramel, raisin, cane sugar, clove and cinnamon. I couldn’t wait to dive into that heavenly buttery toffee deliciousness. Perhaps inevitably, the actual taste came as a slight let down: the rounded sweetness that hit my nose was more watery on the tongue, and the spiced notes of cinnamon, vanilla and clove seemed to overdominate while the caramel dropped right down. Once I’d added a good mixer – ginger beer – it came together much more easily but the mix of flavours still felt slightly unbalanced. There’s a reason why the majority of alcohol substitute drinks focus on gin: its heavy aromatics work well without alcohol. Here, there’s heft and roundness missing. It’s great to find an alternative to the endless gin substitutes but I’m not sure Stryyk have quite pulled this off.