What are you drinking?

[93EXCivic]

Try a better gin? Just like any other booze, the spectrum will range from swill to magic potion. I have tried and enjoyed many 'craft' gins, but there are 2 mainstays for me: Hendrick's, with unique botanical and just the slightest olfactory hint of cucumber (hence why I put a bit of peel in my pour) and Tanqueray 10, which I think is the best all-around gin available. Very dry, very drinkable.

I have tried Bombay and Hendricks. I just think it is one of those drinks that won't ever agree with my pallet.

[Der Amf]

It's possible to find* people who think Hendricks is an abomination. I never quite understood why - to polarise things momentarily - gin would get people opinionated, but malt not. Suppose whisky drinkers venom was saved for blends.

*I used to sell booze so I met a lot of people's thoughts on spirits

[geoffbot]

I love Hendricks g and t with cucumber; I love a martini too, but I'm not sure I've ever had a Hendricks martini. It's now on the list.

[Upstate]

Hendricks is great...but my favorite gin is Junipero by far. If you can find it get it.

[Raza]

That would be the antithesis of 'perfect'. Maybe using the term 'perfect' for a martini is not so widespread: we use it to describe a largely untouched, XXX dry martini of fine gin. Vermouth ruins a gin martini, as does contact with ice. The gin itself should be frozen (put the bottle in the freezer for a day or more: the alcohol content will keep it from solidifying), meaning that when it is below freezing temp, it will pour like syrup. With Hendrick's, a twist of cucumber peel in the glass covered with the frozen gin. That is all.

I put vermouth in my gin martinis and love it. Stirred when at a bar, gin from the freezer at home, generally. Two olives.

And of course, dirty. Not only because it tastes great, but any female bartender will always ask "Is it dirty enough for you?" Cheap thrill, I know, but a thrill nonetheless.

[Raza]

Try a better gin? Just like any other booze, the spectrum will range from swill to magic potion. I have tried and enjoyed many 'craft' gins, but there are 2 mainstays for me: Hendrick's, with unique botanical and just the slightest olfactory hint of cucumber (hence why I put a bit of peel in my pour) and Tanqueray 10, which I think is the best all-around gin available. Very dry, very drinkable.

Much like scotch, there are a trillion different ways of doing the same thing, and I have certainly had a few well made but 'challenging' gins that I probably wouldn't attempt again.

If your experience is limited to an entry-level bottle (Beefeater, Gordon's, Plymouth, etc) then you really don't know what a dry gin is all about.

Some people just can't take the juniper. I accept that gin isn't a universal drink. That's what vodka is for.

[Raza]

Damn, now I want a gin and tonic. Yes, I know it's not even 9AM.


I wonder if I have any tonic.

[geoffbot]

Damn, now I want a gin and tonic. Yes, I know it's not even 9AM.


I wonder if I have any tonic.

Good thing I have a 9-5 otherwise I'd have killed myself with alcohol long ago. I regularly drink at 10 am in the summer on a weekend.

[CanadianStraps]

Doesn't look like the Junipero is available here by default, but it does look interesting and I'll see about doing an import. If it is truly a 'craft' offering, it might only be available very regionally. Like most craft beers. You're in NY and the bottle comes from CA, so that makes me hopeful.

[CanadianStraps]

I love Hendricks g and t with cucumber; I love a martini too, but I'm not sure I've ever had a Hendricks martini. It's now on the list.

Never thought of using it in a G&T, I might have to give it a go.

I love the Tanqueray Rangpur for G&T, it is a great mixer gin.