Gin is a colorless alcoholic beverage made by distilling or redistilling rye or other grain spirits and adding juniper berries or aromatics such as anise, caraway seeds, or angelica root as flavoring. American Gin is very pure in flavor as effort is made to remove the taste and aroma of the distillates before adding the berries or other flavorants. English gins and Geneva gin are much more influenced by the flavors and aromas of their constituent parts.

When I’m using gin I approach it as a bitter or sour flavor. There’s really no other flavor to use to describe gin. It tastes of juniper berries, plain and simple. Some people describe it as tasting like pine trees but frankly, I don’t taste pine and think they are just repeating what they read elsewhere. I guess that since the juniper is a coniferous plant there may be some hint of it’s parentage to justify the pine tree analogy some like to utilize.

Gin is also one of those alcohols that you either love or hate. Its flavor is so potent that just a little bit goes a long way. I think I’ve been using the same bottle of gin in my bar for the last 10 years, mostly using it a splash at a time.

We’ll examine other families in future posts.

Until then, may all your drinks be tasty. Cheers.