Wired Gin

The Gin Gimlet

13 January 2012 – 4:39 am
The martini is the public face of gin, the iconic cocktail -- deservedly so, to be sure. Its popularity is approached only by the gin and tonic, that refreshing and pleasantly bitter concoction of the British. But my favorite everyday gin drink - the one that requires no special ingredients, unlike a Last Word or an Aviation - is the gimlet: gin and Rose's lime juice (known as "lime cordial" outside the USA). The gin gimlet has longer history than you may realize. Rose's lime cordial, a mix of lime juice and sugar, has been around since 1867, when it was used to provide a citrus ration to British sailors, in an attempt to prevent scurvy. (The use of limes in British sailors' diets is where the term "limey" comes from.) Although many people will make a gimlet these days with fresh lime juice, which is a perfectly good drink, the original ...

Posted in Recipes | 4 Comments »

Best Gin Cocktails for the Holidays

20 December 2011 – 4:54 am
Ho Ho Ho!  Holiday cocktail time is here, and gin is perfect for the season. Uninitiated party-goers may complain that gin tastes too "piney" for them. However, this time of year that juniper flavor is perfect next to your Christmas tree. Traditional gins are best for for your holiday gin cocktails, including Tanquaray, Beefeater and even Gordons. For an extra holiday jolt, use Junipero gin. Our five favorite gin drinks for this time of year are: 1. Negroni A frequently-mentioned favorite here at Wired Gin, Campari and sweet vermouth impart a festive red color to the Negroni, making it the perfect gin cocktail for the holiday season: 1 oz gin 1 oz sweet vermouth 1 oz Campari Fill a cocktail shaker two-thirds full of ice and add the ingredients. Shake for approximately 15 seconds, strain into a chilled cocktail glass. Garnish with a slice of orange. 2. Emerald Isle While the Negroni provides a gorgeous red color, the Emerald Isle cocktail provides a ...

Posted in Recipes, Toast of the Town | No Comments »

Sipsmith’s Gin Review

10 December 2011 – 4:14 am
From the first glance at the bottle, Sipsmith Gin gives an impression of being extremely solid. The bulbous glass bottle features a simple label, with a graphic styling of a pot-still with a swan’s neck. [caption id="attachment_389" align="alignright" width="156" caption="Sipsmith Gin"][/caption] The reference to the still is not random. Sipsmith is distilled in an old-fashioned copper still named Prudence. The still is the first to launch in London in 190 years, designed by Christian Carl, a German family business who has manufactured stills since 1869. As you can imagine, having such a specialized still means that Sipsmith can only produce a few hundred bottles of gin per batch in their small Hammersmith location. There are rumors that founder Sam Galsworthy sets off at 4 a.m. every morning to collect water from the Thames for distillation. All very crafty and heritage-based, isn’t it? But you’re probably wondering about the actual gin. Unusually, the bottle is closed ...

Posted in Reviews | No Comments »

The Best Bar Gifts for the Holidays

24 November 2011 – 11:24 am
The holidays are fast approaching and at Wired Gin, and that means an opportunity to consider bar gifts for friends and family. Whether you celebrate Christmas, New Years, Hanukkah, Kwanzaa and/or Festivus, what could bring a more festive spirit to the season than a finely crafted cocktail using the best tools and knowledge available? Let your gin cool to just the right temperature, and ponder our well-researched list of the top cocktail gift ideas: Encouragement for the Cocktail Beginner Many potential bartenders are just starting to explore the possibilities, but without proper equipment to deliver the flourish and flavor. These people crave the Oggi Pro Stainless-Steel 10-Piece Cocktail Shaker and Bar Tool Set. It's everything you need to produce brilliant cocktails in one elegant package. A Cocktail Party Gift for People on the Go For the cocktail lover on the go, the perfect bar gift idea is the Picnic Time Manhattan Portable Cocktail Party. ...

Posted in Reviews, Toast of the Town | No Comments »

Orris Root: Perfume for Gin

9 November 2011 – 8:38 am
Orris root is a botanical used in the manufacture of perfumes and potpourris. It is also used as a flavoring in gin, imparting the scent of sweet violets. More importantly, though, it binds the aromas of the other botanicals together, keeping them from dissipating too soon. Orris root was banned in parts of Europe; the sale of pure orris root was also banned in the US. The reason it was banned is because of its highly allergenic nature. It causes severe reactions such as hay fever, asthma and cold symptoms and even death. Cosmetics labeled hypoallergenic have to leave this ingredient out of their product. Orris root is the root of an iris plant. The plants are dug up in late summer, the third year of the plant’s life and are dried for 2 years until they have a chalky appearance. They are ground up and the resulting powder is used ...

Posted in Gingredients | No Comments »

Hoxton Gin Review

2 November 2011 – 1:57 am
If you’re in the market for an unusual gin experience, Hoxton Gin might be the spirit you’re looking for. Hoxton Gin is the brainchild of a bartender “geeking out over the beautiful spirit,” who set out to “create a fun gin that’s like no other on the market.” Well, it’s certainly fair to say that owner Gerry Calabrese has taken a beautiful spirit and made it distinctive, though perhaps not in a good way. Many of the best gins carry with them the taste of London, where gin first became famous. This one, despite carrying the name of the trendiest neighborhood in the city, carries a different taste, one of Jamaica, perhaps. According to marketing materials, the brand takes grain spirit and blends it with a mix of coconut, grapefruit, juniper, iris, tarragon and ginger. The grapefruit flavor doesn’t seem like a bad idea, but the coconut overwhelms the palate. In its defense, ...

Posted in Reviews | No Comments »

The New Gins – An Overview

17 October 2011 – 1:32 am
The recent revival of cocktail culture and the sudden American interest in new flavors -- viz: orange Kit Kats, purple Mountain Dew, chipotle Doritos, chicken on pizza -- are probably the two main factors in the wave of new gins on the market following the resurgence of gin's popularity to the American palate. While the mainstays are still with us -- Tanqueray, Beefeater, Gordon's, Boodles, Bombay, they're certainly not going anywhere, and bless them for that -- the new offerings result in more variety among available gins than the drinking world has seen since London dry gin overtook all the other styles. One of the more popular examples among fans of mainstream gin is Hendrick's. A traditional gin in most respects, Hendrick's subtracts nothing noticeable from the blend of botanicals we've come to expect -- but it adds cucumber and rose, and the cucumber in particular isn't a background note like ...

Posted in Gingredients, Toast of the Town | 2 Comments »

Leopold’s Gin Review

13 October 2011 – 8:40 am
As the name suggests, Leopold’s Gin is produced in very small batches, limited to fifty cases each time. A family business from Denver, Colorado, Leopold Bros. began producing gin in 2002.  Like most hand-crafted distillers, Leopold keeps its presentation simple: the gin comes in a clear apothecary bottle, simply adorned with white labels and the batch number. American gin has been struggling to compete with the best of Old Blighty, and often that’s due to the fact that they’re trying to steal from the lucrative vodka market. As a result, the American market has produced a number of gins with only faint flavor, afraid to hit you with juniper berries. Like many of those gins, Leopold’s sits on the mild end of the gin spectrum. Todd Leopold, the master distiller, seems to have intuited that it isn’t juniper that’s driving away premium vodka drinkers, but pine. Gin is normally flavored by adding botanicals ...

Posted in Reviews | No Comments »

What Is Gin Made From?

19 September 2011 – 12:00 pm
The question "What Is Gin Made From?" has no easy answer. In the simplest terms, gin is a neutral grain spirit, like vodka, which has been flavored with juniper berries. Nothing else is required or excluded by the definition. In practice, we can say a few other things about gin: it is nearly always unaged; it's usually redistilled after being infused with its flavorings (differentiating it from flavored vodka); it is not noticeably sweet; and in addition to the juniper berries, it's flavored with a number of botanicals. Because the spirit used is neutral in flavor, the botanicals become the hallmark of the brand, the thing that sets Bombay Sapphire off from Bulldog, Citadelle, Hendrick's, Junipero. [caption id="attachment_359" align="alignright" width="150" caption="Junper Berries"][/caption] Think of the botanicals as being like chili powder. Everyone has a good idea of what chili powder tastes like, and certain combinations, even if they included many of the ...

Posted in Gingredients | No Comments »

Gin vs. Vodka

2 August 2011 – 11:33 am
The history of American cocktails after World War II is very much a tug of war between gin and vodka.  As gin's popularity waned, and the ingredients used in gin cocktails became obscure, vodka soared on the strength of its marketing campaigns, its mixability, and the ease of hiding it in the most mundane drinks.  That's all well and good, and will hopefully soon be behind us as gin returns to prominence -- but in the meantime, vodka has supplanted gin in a good many drinks.   The martini is the most obvious, of course; while a martini was for decades a gin drink and only ever a gin drink, by James Bond's time vodka had begun to appear, and by the age of the three-martini lunch, one or two of those tax-deductible martinis were probably vodka spritzed with the breath of vermouth and floating a plastic-sword-speared olive.  The gin and tonic, ...

Posted in Toast of the Town | No Comments »