GIN is the Queen of the Whites and maybe of all hard liquor. It is the most variant and the most controversial. It is the Reisling of hard liquor in that it can be made in a wide range of flavor profiles and still be Gin. It is most importantly the basis for nearly all classic cocktails. Half of the original 300 drinks in the Waldorf-Astoria Bar book are gin based. Cocktails may be an American invention, but ironially they are based on a spirit from the mother land, England [at least the variant used today]. And it certainly has a most notorious history, both there and here. Anybody not familiar with William Hogarth’s engraving Gin Lane, needs to pause now and Google it.
Gin is a distilled neutral grain spirit that is then re-distilled with botanicals, traditionally juniper plus others. Some of a myriad options include:
Spices such as anise, cinnamon, coriander, nutmeg, savory, and saffron;
roots of angelica, iris, orris, licorice and violet;
peels of grapefruit, lime, and orange; and
the occasional cubeb, dragon eye, rose, cucumber, cassia bark or grains of paradise.
All in all gin is only about an 'eye of newt' short of being a Shakespearean play. Some brands, such as Citadelle and Bombay Sapphire are very willingto share these details - most however don't.
NOTE: Lost in the wide range of choices offered by Gin producers is the central concern for those contemplating drinking gin - Juniper. Juniper is the only reason people who don't drink or want to drink gin maintain this stance. So what follows can in one sense be superceded by the buying caveat that all gin falls into two categories: 1) those with pronounced juniper presence, and 2) those without.
With that in mind, Historically, all of this variation clusters into 5-ish types of gins:
GENEVER: or jeneve gin: The mother of all gins; an unusal, by contemporary tastes, concoction that is Dutch in origin and much heavier, and more umami, on the palate than its step child, London Dry.
DRY gin, or LONDON DRY Gin: a type of gin, not a way to serve a martini. London Dry gin came to be so called so as to distinguish it from the sweeter heavier original Dutch concoction. More recently there has come to be a subset of English Dry Gin - Scottish Dry Gin, mostly made by scotch distillers branching out. A strong argument for keeping Scotland in the Union The primary difference between it and the Mother Gin of England, is it is lighter on the juniper and showcases a more local variety of herbals than does the traditional London version. It is distinct enough in my mind to be a 6th category, but as we only have 5 fingers, I will keep it simple.
OLD TOM gin: an ever so slightly sweeter Dry gin - akin to London Dry in spirit - really a delight in drinks for those who don't want the pronounced juniper of London Dry gin. Its cousin, PLYMOUTH gin, stands somewhere between Old Tom and Dry and can only be made in Plymouth England - again a gentler entry into the category.
AMERICAN regional gins: they tend to vary from the traditional juniper/herbal formulas found in most English dry gins - some are delightful, others a bit like petrol fumes.
EUROPEAN: these gins are a recent entry into the category. They come from all over europe: Sweden, Spain, France, Austria . . . Manyu are simply London dry variations. But the best eschew juniper to a large degree and focus, as their American regional companions, on local ingredients, including a wide range of floral additions. Many do not contain juniper at all.
The upshot of all this distinctiveness is that more than any other liquor type, the actual Gin used in a drink matters.
The following list is mostly absurd given all the waffling conducted above. But if something must be done to keep another generation from growing up thinking Vodka is a legitimate choice. I understand. Tequila really isn't viable as a regular go-to beverage, and rum is still digging out from underneath the onslaught of beach banger drinks from the 70s. So it is up to Gin to reclaim it's rightful spot, if not among all liquors, then certainly amongst the whites.
If you are a beginner witih Gin, then buy in the order given. They are the least Juniper-ish. Buy further down the list as you are able to endure. For those with exposure to liquor and maintain no ill will toward gin, start at the other end and buy up the list. I think you will find that Gin is a very admirable substitute for bourbon - it has all the character and nuance, and none of the barrel bite of bourbon.
Instead of numbers, as in other categories, I have indicated the source of the brand.
Do not under peril of voodoo death, every substitute vodka for any drink calling for Gin. There is no such thing as a Vodka Martini, for example.That's like saying there is vegan hamburger, soy milk, or proper women. Just keep in mind what Gwendolyn Brooks in her poem "Seven Pool Players" warns us what happens when we thin our gin:
We real cool. We
Left school. We
Lurk late. We
Strike straight. We
Sing sin. We
Thin gin. We
Jazz June. We
Die soon.
go to GIN DRINKS