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Right now, gin is in. Gin & Tonics and Negronis aren’t just tasty drinks, they’ve almost become fashion accessories for the hipster set. This hasn’t always been the case but hey, when you’ve been around since the Middle Ages the way gin has, you can’t always stay trendy for centuries on end. The juniper berries that give gin its distinctive flavor had been used for medicinal purposes since ancient times; the names of the geniuses that decided to use them in distilled spirits are sadly lost to history. Up until the 19th century, gin was not considered the most premium of spirits. But as distilling techniques became more sophisticated, gin became more refined. Before long it was embraced by everyone from mixologists, who were busy creating the earliest of cocktails, to the British Navy, whose sailors first created the gimlet.
London dry gin ruled the spirits roost throughout the first half of the 20th century, as the martini and G & T became two of the best-known cocktails in the world. Vodka became the clear spirit of choice by the end of the 1960s, but gin has been making a steady comeback ever since the new cocktail culture rediscovered it around Y2K. Today, flavored gins represent the latest step in the spirit’s long evolution. These ten gin cocktails are all old school (we’re talking 1800s for a lot of ’em), but flavored gins give them a totally modern twist—and they taste great too.
Martini
Ingredients: 1.5 oz. lime flavored gin, 0.5 oz. dry vermouth
Directions: Pour ingredients into an ice-filled mixing glass, stir briskly, strain into a chilled cocktail glass. Garnish with lemon or lime peel.
Simply put, the martini is the most iconic cocktail on the planet—after all, the martini glass is the universal symbol for “cocktail.” The forerunner of the martini, the Martinez, was created at some point in the 1870s, but the dry gin-and-vermouth creation we know today didn’t really emerge until the turn of the 20th century. Starting in the ’60s, vodka-tinis captured the hearts and livers of Mad Men-era drinkers. But the millennial generation has come back to the original formula; the botanicals in the gin form a perfect union with the botanicals in the vermouth. For a new twist on an old classic, try using lime flavored gin to give your ’tini a tangy citrus edge.
Gin & Tonic
Ingredients: 2 oz. peach gin, 4 oz. tonic water, lime wedge
Directions: Add the gin and tonic water to a tall ice-filled glass, squeeze the juice from the lime wedge, then throw it in; stir well with a bar spoon or stirrer.
The G & T is one of the hipster cocktails of the moment, but its origins go back to the mid 19th century, when soldiers on the warm-weather outposts of the British Empire needed to find a way to prevent malaria. The cure, quinine, was incorporated into tonic water, but the finished product was, well, let’s just say there’s a reason most of us don’t go around drinking straight tonic water. But throw in some gin and a squeeze of lime and you’re not only preventing a potentially fatal mosquito-borne disease, but you’ve also got one of the most refreshing drinks on the planet. It’s hard to top the simple alchemy of a classic gin & tonic, but peach gin instead of straight London dry adds a whole new dimension of flavor.
Tom Collins
Ingredients: 2 oz. red berry flavored gin, 1 oz. fresh squeezed lemon juice, 0.5 oz. simple syrup (equal parts sugar and water, boiled until the sugar dissolves), club soda
Directions: Shake lemon juice, simple syrup, and gin in a shaker with ice, strain into tall ice-filled glass. Top with club soda and stir with a bar spoon.
Basically sparkling lemonade with gin… and what’s wrong with that? The T-Coll has been around since at least the 1870s, and it’s survived not only the passage of time but also the fate of having a truly lousy bottled mix made for it. The only way to make (and drink) a proper Tom Collins is with fresh squeezed lemon juice; if it came out of a bottle or it was in powdered form, trash it and start over. The tart-but-sweet flavor of red berry gin harmonizes with the lemon juice like an alcoholic Boyz II Men.
Gimlet
Ingredients: 2 oz. apple flavored gin, 3/4 oz. Rose’s lime juice or fresh squeezed lime juice, lime wedge
Directions: Stir gin and lime juice briskly, strain into an ice-filled Old Fashioned glass; use lime wedge for garnish.
Most cocktail recipes instruct you to stand in the corner wearing a dayglo-colored dunce cap if you even think about including bottled juices or mixes in your libation. The gimlet, however, is supposed to be made with sweetened bottled juice, namely Rose’s lime juice. You see, it was created by British sailors back in the 1800s that drank the bottled lime juice to avoid getting scurvy, and drank gin to… well, to get drunk. It was only a matter of time before someone thought to combine the two, and cocktail history was made. In this give-me-fresh-squeezed-or-give-me-death era, fresh squeezed lime juice has started making an appearance in gimlets. It’s not correct, technically, but it’s delicious, so who cares. Apple flavored gin goes well with both versions, giving a gimlet mellow lower fruity notes to go along with the up-front flavors of the lime.
Negroni
Ingredients: 1 oz. pineapple flavored gin, 1 oz. Campari, 1 oz. sweet vermouth
Directions: Pour all ingredients into an ice-filled glass, stir. Add orange peel for garnish if so desired.
Along with the gin & tonic, the Negroni is the hippest vintage gin drink in Cocktailville right now. And it only took a century (give or take a few years) to get there. Legend has it that sometime during World War I, an Italian count named Negroni walked into a bar and requested an Americano cocktail (Campari, sweet vermouth and soda), but with gin in place of the soda. Lo and behold, the new drink—christened “Negroni” after the count himself—was an instant classic. None of the three ingredients are easy drinking for beginners, but put ’em together and magic is made. Campari pairs brilliantly with most tropical fruits, so pineapple flavored gin makes a perfect addition here.
Gin Buck
Ingredients: 2 oz. apple flavored gin, 4 oz. ginger ale, lemon wedge
Directions: Squeeze the juice from the lemon wedge into a tall ice-filled glass, add the wedge, pour the gin and ginger ale, and stir briefly.
A drink that’s elegant in its simplicity, the Gin Buck was a popular tipple during Prohibition, back when the only gin most tipplers could find was made in a bathtub. It’s not as well known today as the gin & tonic or the Tom Collins, but it’s just as tasty as either. And dare we say it, it’s tastier still with apple flavored gin—the apple notes make a perfect combo with the dry ginger ale, and the other botanicals in the gin give it a depth of flavor that belies the simplicity of the ingredients.
Bee's Knees
Ingredients: 2 oz. grape flavored gin, 3/4 oz. honey syrup, 1 tsp. fresh squeezed lemon juice
Directions: Shake all ingredients in a mixing glass with ice, strain into a chilled cocktail or rocks glass, garnish with lemon twist (optional).
The precise origins of the Bee’s Knees are lost to history, but it was almost certainly created during Prohibition, since it began appearing in cocktail recipe books right around the time of Repeal in 1934. The name alone gives it away (“the bee’s knees” was to the ’20s as “the shizz” or “all that and a bag of chips” are today). Don’t let the inclusion of honey syrup throw you, as it’s just equal parts honey and water, boiled and then cooled. The addition of grape flavored gin interacts well with all the ingredients, from the sweetness of the honey to the tartness of the lemon juice to the other botanicals in the gin itself.
Gin Smash
Ingredients: 2 oz. peach flavored gin, 1/2 tsp. sugar, 3-4 sprigs of mint, club soda (optional)
Directions: Muddle the mint in a mixing glass, add gin and sugar, shake vigorously. Strain into a glass with shaved or crushed ice, top with club soda if desired.
A mint julep with gin instead of bourbon? That’s essentially what the gin smash is, and it’s been a smash hit since at least the late 1800s, when legendary mixologist (and author of one of the most influential cocktail books of all time, Bartenders’ Guide or How to Mix Drinks) published a recipe for it. Nowadays, there are all sorts of variations on the gin smash which include various additional fruits and herbs. Peach flavored gin makes a great foil for the mint and works well with the gin’s botanicals too.
Gin Rickey
Ingredients: 2 oz. red berry flavored gin, juice of one lime, club soda, lime wedge for garnish
Directions: Shake gin and lime juice, strain into tall ice-filled glass, top with club soda.
If you’ve ever had a cherry lime rickey at a soda fountain and thought, “Damn, this would taste amazing with some gin in it,” you’re not alone. The Rickey actually started out as an alcoholic drink back in 1883, when as legend has it, a certain Col. Joe Rickey first squeezed some lime juice into his morning eye-opener of bourbon and sparkling water. By the time the decade was out, gin became the spirit of choice in a Rickey, and that’s the way it stayed until Prohibition, when the name became associated with the non-alcoholic kids’ stuff. The cherry lime rickey, to be fair, is a fantastic drink; utilizing red berry flavored gin brings out a hint of that fruitiness without the cloying sweetness that goes with it.
Ramos Gin Fizz
Ingredients: 2 oz. orange flavored gin, 1/4 tsp. orange flower water, 1/2 oz. lemon juice, 1/2 oz. lime juice, 1/2 oz. simple syrup, 1/2 oz. half & half, 1 egg white, club soda
Directions: Pour all the ingredients except the club soda into a shaker. Shake vigorously for 30-60 seconds, then add several ice cubes and shake vigorously for another minute. Pour 1-2 ounces club soda into a tall glass, then strain the ingredients in the shaker on top.
A tricky drink to make, but well worth it. The RGF is, along with the Sazerac, New Orleans’ signature drink; it was invented there in 1888 by bartender Henry Ramos. It’s a creamy stomach-coater, perfect to start off a night’s boozing, though Frank Sinatra preferred it as a “hair of the dog” morning-after reviver. Some may get squeamish at the thought of a raw egg white in a cocktail, but one taste and you’ll stop worrying. Bitter orange flower water is a key ingredient in the Ramos gin fizz, so the relative sweetness of orange flavored gin makes a nice counterpart.