The licorice plant is a member of the legume family, meaning it is closer to lima beans than jellybeans as most candies that taste like licorice these days are flavored with anise rather than licorice. It is the root of the plant that is used; the liquid is extracted from the pulpy root and boiled down to a thick, syrupy consistency or reduced even further to a solid form which can be powdered. Licorice root contains a compound that is 50 times sweeter than sugar; in some places the root is dug up washed and chewed to freshen the breath. Dried licorice root can be eaten like candy. In Syria, Italy and Egypt all have variations on drinks made from licorice extract.

Licorice root is also one of the botanicals used in some gins. Bombay uses licorice root, as do Blackwood’s Nordic Dry, Citadelle, Mercury and G’Vine, which also uses grape flower as a flavoring. Beefeater is also a common gin that also uses licorice root. It adds a bittersweet flavor that perfectly supports a gin & tonic as well as adding a bite to any cocktail where gin is front and center, such as a martini or French 75.

Licorice has a long history, going back 4,000 years. King Tut was buried with a supply to take with him into the next life. The Chinese have used licorice for medicinal purposes since ancient times. Started in the 1930’s, the use of licorice in the manufacturing of tobacco for chewing or smoking is still one of its primary uses, making up about 90% of the total usage. Some shampoos and conditioners are also scented with licorice root and it is used for some fore extinguisher compounds. Old wives’ tales about licorice say that chewing on bits of licorice root enhances lust and love, especially for women. Pass the Sen-Sen, please!

Cough syrups, throat lozenges, mouth ulcers and tooth powders are all uses for this botanical. Licorice is an expectorant, an agent that soothes and cools, an anti-inflammatory agent and has been known to successfully treat stomach ulcers. Canker sores have been effectively treated with a licorice mouthwash. The main active ingredient in licorice is glycyrrhizin and it is known to stimulate the activity of the adrenal glands. Licorice root is also being used to treat patients with hepatitis C. Further studies are also beginning to suggest licorice is an effective treatment for heart disease as it may help to reduce high blood pressure. One study has shown some effectiveness in treating patients with HIV and Japanese encephalitis, but those studies remain inconclusive and the findings have yet to be duplicated in larger studies.

Licorice can be administered in teas, lozenges, mouthwashes, chewable tablets, liquid form (tinctures) and dried root. As with any herbal medication, special care should be taken to see if licorice reacts with any medications already being taken. Using licorice for extended periods of time can also have adverse effects, so care must be taken to avoid adverse reactions or side effects.

As you sip pensively on your martini this week, know that the subtle licorice flavor evokes much more than the box of Good ‘n’ Plenty that you get at the movie theater. As a medicinal herb, it’s been around a long time. Ancient warriors chewed on the root of the sweet licorice plant to quench their thirst when there was no water to be found. Licorice is the gin botanical of a million uses, including making your gin more tasty.

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Nevertheless, Broker’s Gin is a vintage gin in every way. Made at a distillery near London in a copper still, it is everything a gin needs to be. The time-honored juniper basis has been skillfully blended with traditional botanicals of coriander, orris root, nutmeg, cassia bark, cinnamon, licorice, orange & lemon peel and angelica root to produce a quality product from classic ingredients. They even claim that the water comes from an underground stream beneath the distillery.

As for cocktails, this gin is perfect for traditional fare. The mouth feel is heavy – some describe it as oily.  The juniper-forward yet friendly flavor makes for a great martini and it doesn’t get buried in a gin & tonic, gimlet or negroni. Broker’s speaks gin, pure and simple. No vodka allowed.

The higher proof of Broker’s makes it ideal for mixtures that would bury many of the new gins on the market today. Prefer to make your martini wet? Broker’s doesn’t care. Did you pour a little too much bitter lemon in your glass? Broker’s can help. The bottom line is that 94 proof can help with many cocktail errors.

The virtues of this gin make its price quite remarkable, around US$20. Buy some today. And enjoy!

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 cocktail gifts, there’s none better to understand gin and why it is the foundation for so many brilliant 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.

The Italians have always appreciated bitterness, from broccoli raab to radicchio to Sardinia’s corbezzolo honey, which has a tawny caramel sweetness but finishes as bitter as crushed aspirin. Italy is home to a number of bitter liqueurs, often called amari or aperitif bitters, and of those, the one best known outside the country is Campari. Made from the same recipe since 1860 and — like so many of those old herbal liqueurs — using more than 60 ingredients that the boom in the spice trade had made available, Campari is a tempting deep candy-red, and would be sweet enough to drink straight if you could handle the bitterness. Most people can’t when they’re first introduced to it — it’s a drink with a learning curve. Give Campari four tries and you may go from aversion to obsession.

Most of the first Americans to discover Campari were G.I.s sent to Italy in WWI, but it was the Lost Generation — Fitzgerald, Hemingway, and their gang — who first encountered the Negroni, invented in 1919 in honor of gin-lover Count Camillio Negroni. A simple-sounding drink, the Negroni is equal parts gin, Campari, and sweet vermouth, stirred (like a martini) and served over ice with an orange twist. The combination is bitter and bracing, but enjoyably, quaffably so — the way fresh-squeezed grapefruit juice is. The gin tames the Campari but doesn’t cover it up, even if you tilt the ratio a bit more towards the gin as you become accustomed to the aperitif. It is, plainly, one of the best excuses to be thirsty.

The Pimm’s Cup is a similar drink, but as British as the Negroni is Italian. A British bartender in the 1820s, James Pimm, invented the liqueur; by the 1960s, his company offered six versions of it, each of them using the same basic herbs and spices to flavor a different base liquor. Today, only one version is still produced — the first and best, Pimm’s No. 1, a 50-proof gin concoction. Pimm’s is a ruddy russet, like reddish tea; the taste is slightly bitter, citric but not tart, subtly spicy. The Pimm’s Cup combines one part Pimm’s No. 1 with 2 parts lemon soda and garnishes it with aplomb: the original recipe, which you rarely find followed outside of Britain, adds leaves of mint and borage and slices of lemon, apple, orange, and strawberry. The Napoleon House in New Orleans simplifies this, using cucumber (which tastes similar to borage), mint, and an orange slice.

Easy variants are found by using ginger beer or tonic water instead of the lemon soda; if you do use the soda, be sure to use one with real lemon juice, like Essn’s Meyer Lemon soda or San Pellegrino’s Limonata. The tartness makes all the difference to the drink. In the winter, you can dispense with the garnishes completely unless you want to float a few cranberries on top: make a hot Pimm’s Cup with three parts hot lemonade and one part Pimm’s No. 1, and if you’re celebrating, add an extra part of gin.

But the simplest combination of gin and bitters is so simple that, in combination with the name, you may shy away from it. Pink Gin may not sound like a serious drink, but it’s an excellent way to try a new gin — or an old favorite. It uses Angostura bitters, which happen to be the easiest to find, though Peychaud’s are a good variant; like the soft drink Moxie, both take their bitterness from gentian root. Simply shake a few dashes of bitters into your glass, and swirl it around until the whole surface has been coated; add a couple ounces of gin, and rocks if you like. This isn’t a drink for gin beginners, but if you’re used to martinis or gin and tonics, it’s a great change of pace, especially with a really excellent gin.

1. Stellar Gin Apple Cocktail

As we celebrate the onset of the fall apple-picking season, Stellar Gin recommends this seasonally appropriate version of Gin & Juice:

1½ ounces Stellar Gin
3 ounces apple juice
Squeeze of lemon juice
1 apple slice (red or green), for garnish

Fill a cocktail shaker two-thirds full of ice and add the ingredients. Shake for approximately 15 seconds, strain into a chilled cocktail glass, and add the garnish.

2. Satan’s Whiskers

Eric Felton recently extolled the virtues of Satan’s Whiskers in a recent Wall Street Journal column Halloween Cocktails Needn’t Be Frightful. Here’s his excellent recipe:

½ oz gin
½ oz dry vermouth
½ oz sweet vermouth
½ oz freshly squeezed orange juice (blood oranges preferred, of course)
½ oz Grand Marnier
1 dash orange bitters

Stir with ice until bitingly cold and then strain into a stemmed cocktail glass. Garnish with orange twist. For a variation, substitute Cointreau Noir for the Grand Marnier.

3. Negroni

With a reddish color to match autumn’s falling leaves, the Negroni is the classic cocktail of choice for the cool fall evenings:

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.

4. Maple Gin Fizz

As described earlier this year at SlashFood, Jason Neu created the Maple Gin Fizz, which feels like an invitation to winter with its robust amaretto and maple flavors.  A cockle-warming delight!

2 ounces gin
½ ounce amaretto
½ ounce cream
1 egg white
½ ounce pure maple syrup
1 ounce lemon juice
Seltzer

Shake all ingredients except seltzer with ice for at least one minute. Strain into a champagne flute and top with a splash of seltzer.

5. Thanksgiving Gin Cocktail

This recipe has many variations, but we believe this version is just the thing to get you in the turkey mood.

1 oz gin
½ ounce dry vermouth
½ ounce apricot brandy
½ teaspoon creme de cassis
½ teaspoon lemon juice

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 cherry.

1. The Floradora recommended by our friends at Hendrick’s Gin provides a refreshing mix of gin, lime and raspberry. The bitterness of the lime and raspberry complements the gin nicely, and Hendricks overlays a delightful cucumber and rose flavor on top!

2. Pimm’s & Lemon: Everyone on the other side of the pond knows about this one. As they recommend over at Pimm’s, fill a jug with some ice and add one part Pimm’s Cup to three parts lemonade. Toss in a little mint, strawberry or cucumber and your off to a refreshing, lightly alchoholic treat.

3. Gimlet: It all started when Sir Thomas O. Gimlette recommended lime juice to avoid scurvy. Sailors throughout the Empire realized that lime juice tasted better with gin. Thus, a drink was born. You can find our recipe and opinions here.

4. Aviation: The recipe is simple: 2 ounces of gin, 1/2 ounce maraschino, 1/4 ounce lemon juice, shaken or stirred.  Its the perfect drink for people who don’t like gin, because the gin becomes but a piece of a piece of a complex puzzle. Remember that shaking or stirring your drink should result in a 15-20% dilution – the dilution is important for a balance of flavors, and the Aviation can be a finicky drink.  Yum.

5. We’re not fans of drinking in the morning, but the Bubbly Pomegranate & Gin Cocktail described at Fancy Toast is absolutely fabulous. Can’t find the pomegranate molasses the recipe calls for?  We skipped the simple syrup and used a little Pom instead.

Bright, lively and flavorful, gin is the perfect summertime cocktail companion.

Gin’s rich history and cultural impact has graced us with many memorable quotes. Here is a collection of my favorites, best enjoyed with an Upside Down Martini, in memory of Julia Child.

[My longevity is because of] .. red meat and gin. - Julia Child

A good heavy book holds you down. It’s an anchor that keeps you from getting up and having another gin and tonic. – Roy Blount Jr.

A perfect martini should be made by filling a glass with gin then waving it in the general direction of Italy. – Noel Coward

The proper union of gin and vermouth is a great and sudden glory; it is one of the happiest marriages on earth, and one of the shortest lived. – Bernard DeVoto

The only time I ever enjoyed ironing was the day I accidentally got gin in the steam iron. – Phyllis Diller

Zen martini:  A martini with no vermouth at all.  And no gin, either. – P.J. O’Rourke

I’ll stick with gin.  Champagne is just ginger ale that knows somebody. - Alan Alda as Hawkeye in M*A*S*H, episode “Ceasefire”

And the sooner the tea’s out of the way, the sooner we can get out the gin, eh? - Henry Reed

[Gin has produced] … a drunken ungovernable set of people. – Thomas Wilson

Gin was mother’s milk to her. - George Bernard Shaw

Gin by pailfuls, wine in rivers, Dash the window-glass to shivers! For three wild lads were we, brave boys, And three wild lads were we; Thou on the land, and I on the sand, And Jack on the gallows-tree! - Sir Walter Scott

I exercise strong self control. I never drink anything stronger than gin before breakfast. – W.C. Fields

I don’t know what reception I’m at, but for God’s sake give me a gin and tonic. - Denis Thatcher

Of all the gin joints in all the towns in all the world, she walks into mine. – Humphrey Bogart as Rick in Casablanca

If you have any other quotes about gin that you think we’re missing, please pass them along! Thanks!

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.

Angelica has a colorful history; its said that its medicinal properties are thought to have been discovered when a monk dreamt an angel showed him the plant and revealed to him its power to cure the plague. Its powers are also linked to protection from evil spirits and exorcism. Folklore has it used as a protection in the home and when it is burned in the house, it imparts a joyful outlook on all residents. Angelica is linked to the Archangel Michael, a patron saint of chivalry and warriors. He is also said to protect police officers and soldiers. The plant blooms in spring, it is said it blooms on May 8^th, St. Michael’s Day. One of its alternative names is “The Root of the Holy Ghost.” For those who believe in warding off evil, lucky amulets and the like, angelica is a powerful substance. Protection from evil, breaking a jinx, healing, blessing and keeping a marriage faithful are all included in the properties of this mystical herb.

In reality, research has shown that angelica does contain compounds that can kill bacteria and affect viruses, fungi and cancer cells and there is a possibility that it may boost the immune system. These effects may mean there is some basis of truth in its usefulness during the time of plague in Europe. It contains the vitamin B12, Zinc, Thiamin, Riboflavin, Potassium, Magnesium, Iron and sugars. For medicinal purposes it has been used to cure colic, colds, coughs, urinary tract infections and fevers. As a tonic it is said to be good for women, children and the elderly as it has properties to strengthen the heart. As is true with any medicinal herb, care should be taken before giving it to a woman who is pregnant or nursing, a child or an elderly person to ensure there will be no adverse reactions or potential harm done. It is used as a gargle to sooth sore throats and mouth ulcers and as a poultice to ease swelling, itching and rheumatism. It has even been used to prevent acne and cure athlete’s foot. In an ironic twist, its powdered root is supposed to cause a “disgust for spirituous liquors” when taken as a tonic.

Herbalists use the root, fresh and dried and powdered, for making tonics, infusions, poultices and tea. The stalks are eaten both fresh and candied. Candied stalks are considered a delicacy and are used as confectionary decorations. Angelica can also be used in making jams and jellies. The leaves can be crushed and used for poultices to ease pulmonary ailments. The seeds are processed to obtain the oil, which is in turn used as a flavoring agent. The oil has also been used in making perfume.

Angelica is known to be used in Bombay gins, London Hill Dry Gin, Blackwood Vintage Dry Gin, Plymouth, Beefeater, Mercury and Juniper Green London Dry Gin. Its flavor is comparable to juniper, so it adds sweetness and boosts and compliments the flavor of the juniper berries. Gin distilleries shop for the freshest and most flavorful botanicals available to maintain the quality the sophisticated gin drinker has come to appreciate.