Having been behind the bar for almost 25 years, I can safely say that two spirits scare patrons the most: gin and tequila. Typical conversations about these spirits go like this:
Guest: "Can you suggest a cocktail for me? I generally like a bitter cocktail."
Bartender: "I'd suggest a Negroni. It's made with gin, sweet vermouth and Campari."
Guest: "Oh, no. I can't drink gin (pick one) because a) I had a bad experience in high school; b) It makes me mean; or c) It tastes like pine trees. I'll have a vodka soda, please."
Or:
Guest: "Can you suggest a cocktail for me? I'm a fan of herbacious cocktails."
Bartender: "I'd suggest a Yellow Jacket, created by Jason Kosmas of Employees Only in NYC. It's made with tequila, Elderflower liqueur and yellow Charteuse."
Guest: "Oh, no. I can't drink tequila (pick one) because a) I had a bad experience in high school; b) It makes me mean; or c) It tastes like pepper. I'll have a vodka soda, please."
I am a huge fan of both spirits, and I'm bound and determined to break down these barriers. I take it as a challenge to reintroduce the general drinking public to the spirits that frighten them. I want to open up their minds (and livers) to the beauty of distilled spirits. Since I've already written of my love for tequila, I will now fawn over gin.
Attention, vodka lovers: Gin is the original flavored vodka. Gin, like many distilled spirits, was originally created for medicinal purposes. It has a long, controversial and much disputed history. A Spanish alchemist named Arnold of Villanova first wrote about a healthy aqua vitae (water of life) containing juniper in the thirteenth century. A recipe for "geneverbessenwater," or juniper berry water, was found in a Dutch distilling manual in 1562, and Dutch physician Franciscus de la Boe became famous for "creating" gin as a cure for kidney ailments in 1653.
Whatever gin's true origins, Dutch master distillers perfected this fine spirit, distilling malted barley with juniper and other botanicals. Since the Netherlands had busy international ports, the distillers had a wide range of exotic spices and botanicals to work with, including coriander, orange peel, lemon peel, anise, cassia, caraway, angelica root, orris root, and cubeb. By the 1670s, gin, or genever (Dutch for juniper), was very popular in the Netherlands.
But it wasn't until the Engish crowned a Dutch king, William III, in 1672 that gin stepped on to the world stage. William introduced his new kingdom to his country's favorite spirit -- but the English, being the English, had to make a gin of their own. While the Dutch were master distillers, the English were less concerned with quality. The English government, which was warring intermittently with France, was subsidizing distillation from grain in order to reduce the consumption of French brandy -- so gin came along at just the right time. By the 1700s, the English "Gin Craze" (which has been compared to the crack epidemic in this country in the 1980s) was in full swing, and the reach of the British Navy spread gin throughout the world.
This is just the tip of the ice cube when it comes to the grand history of gin, of course. Today there are several styles of gin, including Old Tom, London Dry, Plymouth, Hollands, Genever and New Western Gin.
If you would like to know more about this fine spirit, Steve Olson, Andy Seymour, Leo DeGroff and the AKA Wine Geek team will be conducting an in-depth gin training courtesy of Tanqueray 10 at 1 p.m. on February 3 at TAG. (Contact [email protected] for more information.)
To further whet your appetite for gin, here's a famous cocktail from the Waldorf hotel:
Bronx Cocktail 1.5 oz. gin (Tanqueray 10) .5 oz. sweet vermouth (Carpano Antica) .5 oz. dry vermouth (Dolin Blanc) 1 ounce fresh orange juice
Shake all of the ingredients with ice, strain into a chilled cocktail glass. Garnish with orange peel.
Cheers!
