Let’s start with the basics: this gin is not subtle. It has been described by some as a punch in the gut. But, it is far more than that. It is no less than the American attack on London Dry Gin, combining the foundation of juniper with the enthusiasm and creativity of the New World. Yum.  The nose is subtle, hinting at juniper but mixing botanicals into a spicy blur that is simply enchanting. This gin brings you back to the days of Winston Churchill, who made his martinis by simply pouring gin into a glass and glancing across the room at a bottle of vermouth. Those were the good ol’ days.

You’ll find Junipero an excellent starting point for a strong gin & tonic. Mmmm. If you feel adventurous, go for a glass on the rocks.  Let it sit for a moment, savor the aroma and then take a sip, considering the bright future of gin.

Sipsmith Gin

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 with a cork rather than a screw-top, just like a fine Scotch whisky. Each cork features a batch number, and if you go to Sipsmith’s website, you can find the particular history of the batch you’ve purchased from.

Once you pop the cork, you know this is no experimental gin. The scent is dominated by juniper. Thankfully. Sipsmith’s website suggests such botanicals as Chinese cassia bark, Madagascan cinnamon, Sevillian orange peel and Italian orris root, but none detract from the basic juniper base. They all come together as a delightful complement to a sophisticated gin that will drive your cocktails to the next level.

Sipped neat, the flavors are all well-balanced, with only the cinnamon notes to distinguish it from an old-fashioned London Dry. It is versatile, and the flavors come through cleanly whether you enjoy it with a little bit of ice and water or mix a G&T. We strongly recommend Sipsmith Gin.

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. It features everything you need for cocktails for two on the go, including space for two bottles of your favorite spirits. We’d recommend a high quality gin along with some Noilly Prat vermouth.

Bar Gifts to Equip the Talented and the Hopeful

The WMF Loft Boston Cocktail Shaker is the perfect choice for both the beginner and the advanced mixologist. The Boston style allows for theatrical and efficient mixing. It is perfectly designed for at-home use and will certainly bring delight as a gift to a cocktail enthusiast.

A Brainy Bartender Gift Idea

For those looking for a bar gifts that make you think, consider a good book.  To start, don’t miss Martini, Straight Up: The Classic American Cocktail, from Lowell Edmunds. It provides an in-depth and very readable history of the martini’s power to advance civilization from someone who clearly knows the subject. For those with a perspective beyond gin, check out Jason Wilson’s Boozehound: On the Trail of the Rare, the Obscure, and the Overrated in Spirits that wanders through the most esoteric and wonderful spirits you’ve never known. Also, don’t miss Vintage Spirits and Forgotten Cocktails: From the Alamagoozlum to the Zombie 100 Rediscovered Recipes and the Stories Behind Them. Although the recipes are a bit on the sweet side, they provide a brilliant insight into the cocktails of today.

The Best Bar Gifts are the Best Bar Supplies

Finally, despite some hesitation in today’s puritan times, a bottle of gin is always an excellent bar gift idea for bartenders with good taste. Choose unique premium gins like Oxley Gin or interesting locally-produced unique gins like Greylock or CapRock.

Finally, and the best gin gift of all from our perspective is the bartender’s GIN compendium. Of all bar gifts, there’s none better to understand gin and why it is the foundation for so many brilliant cocktails.

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, Hoxton Gin garishly announces its unique flavor right on the bottle, with an obvious “Warning!” Take the warning at face value, because no matter what cocktail you attempt, you can’t hide from the coconut.

However, one can’t escape the idea that this may be the perfect gin to attract people who claim to dislike it. A number of London bars are trying to sell the idea that people who say they don’t like gin actually don’t like tonic, and are trying to push different mixes, particularly with grapefruit juice. Hoxton Gin is perfect for that.

In a nutshell, Hoxton Gin is not a bad spirit, but it may be better suited to experimental cocktails than old classics. If you don’t treat it like a traditional gin, you might just find that you love it.

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 to a neutral spirit and then distilling. But Leopold’s Gin distills each signature botanical – including hand-zested Florida oranges and California pummelos – separately and then mixes them together for one final distillation, the rationale being that different botanicals have different boiling points. The result is a mild gin that’s still extremely tasty, with citrus notes that might normally be covered by the juniper.

As Leopold’s is quite dry, I felt it better suited to martinis than G&Ts. It isn’t bad in a G&T, but you might need to balance out the citrus flavor with a sweet element.

In sum, this may not be the best gin for the gin connoisseur. It is very much “gin light”. Nevertheless, if you would like to convert others to the gin experience, Leopold’s Gin may be a good choice to ease them in.

Opening Hendrick’s Gin

The marketing experts at William Grant & Sons started with brilliant packaging for Hendrick’s Gin. The antique bottle looks like it contains patent medicines from the old days. Indeed, gin started as a medicine in Holland, and many of the ingredients like Angelica are still used today for medicinal purposes.

Once you peel off the wrapper on top, removing the cork gives a satisfying “thunk” sound that sounds like a bottle of moonshine. However, the “glug-glug-glug” sound as you pour delivers something far  more tasty.

Drinking Hendrick’s Gin

It is best to begin with an on-the-rocks experience, which reveals a gin’s true identity. Pouring Hendrick’s Gin into your glass and swishing it around with a couple of ice cubes reveals plenty. The crystal clear color and slight stickiness on the side of the glass invites further exploration. The unique aroma of cucumber and rose complements but doesn’t mask the juniper foundation. The first sip delivers the juniper/cucumber combination upfront, then evolves into a rosy citrus finish. The overall experience is luscious yet lighter than most gins.

Mixing Hendrick’s Gin

The best Hendrick’s Gin cocktail recipes take advantage of its light yet unique flavor. It makes an excellent martini, but very dry. Too much vermouth buries some of the more subtle botanicals. On a hot summer day, Hendrick’s makes a perfect gin & tonic. Its light cucumber and rose flavor makes it dangerously drinkable when paired with tonic water. Other light cocktails like an Aviation also work well.  However, avoid recipes with bold ingredients that call for classic juniper-heavy gins. A Negroni, French 75 or even a Gimlet will overwhelm this gin. Nevertheless, Hendrick’s Gin is a unique departure from traditional gin that delivers excellent taste either straight or in light cocktails.

Before describing the gin, it is worth probing further into the packaging and the hype. Examine the picture on the right, and you’ll instantly see that the Oxley Gin bottle is distinctive. It sits within a galvanized tin cup at the bottom, and its cork on top is surrounded by a leather strap. The classic label design completes the premium image. Interestingly, the gin, which is in the “London Dry” style is labelled as a “classic English dry gin”.

In their marketing materials, much is made of Oxley’s unique cold distillation process, which uses below-zero temperatures and very low pressure. Typical gin distillation uses heat to separate alcohol from other ingredients at a temperature of 78 degrees celsius. Their claim is that these high temperatures cook the botanicals and negatively impacts the flavors. Cold distilling means that fresh flavors remain fresh-tasting in the final product. The ingredients themselves can be fresher as well. For example, whereas most gins use dried citrus, Oxley can use fresh. A thorough diagram of the process is available here.

So, with all the trouble they went through, how does Oxley Gin taste?  Fabulous. It is one of the brightest, clean-tasting gins we’ve ever tried. The citrus and juniper aromas dance together nicely before tasting. (Oxley recommends serving their gin neat in a wine goblet to accentuate the aromas. We think that’s an excellent idea.) This gin has a very light mouth feel without a hint of oiliness. The recipe contains 14 botanicals, chosen to uniquely take advantage of their unique distillation process. Common ingredients like juniper and citrus have a fresher, less-harsh flavor. For a 94-proof gin, Oxley doesn’t taste its strength. The taste brings juniper and grapefruit flavors upfront, and finishes with a more complex mix of botanicals like meadowsweet and lemon.

Oxley Gin’s premium price means its best value is delivered when you enjoy it straight on the rocks for a special occasion, like “whew! it was a tough day at work today!”  It also performs admirably in gin-centric cocktail like a martini or even a negroni.

This gin review is quite challenging to write, because the first question that comes to mind is: Is Aviation Gin really gin?

Aviation describes itself as a “botanical democracy”. Alas, democracy is for governments, but juniper is for gin. Aviation lacks that anchor. Some juniper can be found, but it is well-buried.

Don’t get me wrong, this concoction is quite tasty. It just doesn’t taste like gin. Distilled from rye, it carries a rich flavor and an excellent, somewhat oily mouth feel. The sweet flavor derives from the use of botanicals like sarsaparilla and orange peel, and lavender brings a flowery aroma. I agree with Randy’s assessment that “…the distillers may be trying to shatter some preconceived notions of what gin should be.”  That said, enjoy it straight but don’t expect it to satisfy in traditional London Dry Gin cocktails unless you don’t really like the taste of juniper.

To make matters confusing, “Aviation” is also the name of a fabulous gin cocktail as well as the name of this gin. Check out the recipe in our Top Five Summer Gin Drinks article. With this name clash, I feel compelled to finish this gin review with a review of an Aviation gin cocktail made with Aviation Gin.  The resulting cocktail is sweet and bright, but lacks substance. The bright flavor is a good fit for summertime, but my personal preference would be for a gin that stands out better against the lemon and cherry burst in an Aviation cocktail, like Tanqueray or Junipero.

Their tagline, “Not your grandmother’s gin” is an understatement to say the least. Some describe the aroma as “watermelon Jolly Ranchers”, but far more depth comes from CapRock’s fruity aroma. It would be candy if it wasn’t so luscious – and, of course, alchoholic. Peak Spirits doesn’t use common shortcuts like concentrates and flavor oils, but rather integrates ingredients like fresh-squeezed lemon and orange juice for components like citrus flavor. The result is richer than the average gin, but somewhat lacking in juniper for my tastes. Nevertheless, the bracing distilled fruit flavor makes up for it. As we head into summer, that means CapRock is a great foundation for a gin & tonic, especially for people who don’t like gin. For those who do like gin, it is delightfully complex simply on the rocks. Every sip will reveal a different element. Or do a cocktail riff on some of its core elements like apple or citrus.

I feel compelled to mention that CapRock is billed as the only organic gin distilled in the United States. They grow, ferment and distill at the Jack Rabbit Hill Biodynamic Farm in western Colorado’s North Fork Gunnison Valley. That’s nice, but not a compelling reason for me to like it. I like both “organic” and “inorganic” gins. What’s important is compelling flavor. CapRock certainly delivers in that regard. It is a wonderfully novel gin to add to your top shelf.

Gin may have been invented in Holland (well, jenever or genever at least), but England created the sensation across its empire. So, it’s only natural that botique gins have emerged in Massachusetts, USA. It may be the home of the American Revolution and the “cradle of liberty”, but the names of towns and cities bear the mark of the British Empire: Boston, Harwich, Gloucester, Hingham, Cheshire, Acton, Cambridge, Chatham, Chesterfield, Waltham and so on. Massachusetts is also one of the few places in the United States where sales of imported gins exceed those of domestic gins.

With this sophisticated palate and deep British foundations, it’s no surprise that Greylock Gin balances tradition with rebellion. Coming from the heart of the Berkshire Mountains, the stylish bottle belies the rural upbringing of this gin. A glance at the bottle evokes a martini at the Ritz, but a look at the map for Berkshire Mountain Distillers and you think of a mug of moonshine on the farm.

The taste brings the same dichotomy. Yes, there’s juniper.  But Greylock Gin’s fresh flavor is brighter than traditional london dry gin, with cinnamon, orange peel and angelica root smoothing things out. Yet, this gin is not as vague as New Amsterdam which seems to get lost in the wilderness of new ideas.

Greylock Gin is perfectly pleasant on the rocks, or you can excite your usual martini with a splash of orange bitters. The best cocktails build on Greylock’s friendlier botanicals, such as

• Mississippi Mule (2 ounces Greylock Gin, splash of Creme de Cassis, splash of Lemon Juice)
• Lavender Martini (2 ounces Greylock Gin, 1/2 ounce Dry Vermouth, 1/2 ounce Lavender Simple Syrup, splash of Orange Bitters)
• Aviation (2 ounces Greylock Gin, 1/2 ounce Maraschino, 1/4 ounce Lemon Juice)

Ponder the 1776 rebellion. Consider your own. Or just be satisfied. Greylock Gin reminds us of the benefits of both the old and the new.

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