Trendy Gin Your Guide

The Drink of the Moment

Whisper it quietly in the mountains and glens, there is a new drink in town and it isn’t whisky. It is gin, the trendiest and most popular of spirits right now and of course it is almost as Scottish as whisky, as much of the UK’s production is here in Scotland.

Been Around

Gin is one of the earliest forms of distilled spirit, it is many centuries old and it became respectable with malaria. It had been round a very long time before that, called things like Dutch Spirit, but it was malaria that allowed it into the tent of middle class life. The first colonisers in area infested by mosquitoes and malaria were able to drink their quinine medicine by mixing it with gin, making literally a gin tonic. It made you happy and saved your life, how great was that? Modern tonic water has rather less quinine though, but it may still lower your temperature a little if you have a fever.

The usual taste of gin is juniper which is picked wild and it is rarely taken from cultivated sources. The juniper berry is not a berry but a seed cone with very fleshy and merged scales which give it a  berry-like look. And terms like London Dry don’t mean they are made in the English capital, it is a gin style, like California sushi is a kind of fish we don’t eat!

 The Name is Bond, James Bond...Unless You Make Me a Better offer

As you know James Bond liked his Martinis with gin and it wasn’t until Smirnoff gave the film’s producers a great deal of money that the gin was replaced by vodka, not a lot of people know that. Nor do many people who make Martinis with vodka know that they arean’t making a Martini- they are making a cocktail properly called a Kangaroo. (It’ll put bounce in your tail!)  Oh the power of modern marketing!

 Dutch Mother Courage

Originally to us gin  was called  “Jenever “ or Geneva created by  Dutch physician Franciscus Sylvius.  It was said that Dutch soldiers were given “Jenever” to ‘calm their nerves’ before battle – which gives us the phrase Dutch courage. And in the dark ages of medicine, before its use as a vehicle for quinine it was used to cure all sorts.

It became mother’s ruin after its price made it cheaper than beer or wine and the government were forced to improve its quality and hike the price. Which is how the quality of the drink improved to the point where it has become one of the greatest drinks in the world and the gin we know today.

Botanicals Made Glorious

Now with modern trendy gin and let’s face it really, really good gin abounds now, we talk about botanicals that are added to supplement the juniper berries. The botanicals are steamed over the spirit when they are suspended in a “gin basket” positioned within the head of the still allowing the hot alcoholic vapours to extract flavouring components from the botanical charge.

Satan’s Whiskers

Some of the most popular gin cocktails are :

    Martini,    The Negroni,    Satan’s Whiskers,  Pink Gin,    Gin Rickey

The delicious Satan’s Whiskers is made thus:

Made either with Grand Marnier or with orange Curacao.  

1/2 oz. gin
1/2 oz. Grand Marnier
1/2 oz. sweet vermouth
1/2 oz. dry vermouth
1/2 oz. orange juice
Dash orange bitters
Tools: shaker, strainer
Glass: cocktail

Shake ingredients with ice and strain into a chilled glass. 

Join the Trend

If you want to put your Satan’s Whiskers or Gin Rickey into a very decent glass then try our lovely Belgravia Range, where each glass is lavishly hand cut creating a beautiful kaleidescope effect. The beautiful glasses are supplied in luxurious gold satin lined boxes. Doesn’t that sound great? And at half price, even better! Make mine a double.

https://www.jamespirie.com/royal-scot-crystal/wine-suites/belgravia.html