Gin, anyone?

[James Roscoe]

Jon, 1980 was a great year to get married! See you and your bride Sunday!

My wife will not touch gin after a bad experience at a bachorlette party back in 1980. She still won't look at the stuff.

My mother, 84, hasn't had red wine since some bad experience with it in 1946.

My wife will not touch gin after a bad experience at a bachorlette party back in 1980. She still won't look at the stuff.

Both tequila and Southern Comfort were on my list. Tequila has made it off.

Jon, you incurable romantic!

But that leads to an interesting supposition: sort of like the 'endless stew', does that 'marriage' lead to continuity of a sort with the gin?

Hmmmmm.

Hoke, I shudder to think that our marriage and gin are somehow dependant on each other; on the other hand, there's many other associations that are very much worse.
And yes, to paraphrase Sen. Craig (which is currently very popular here in DC): I am a romantic and I have always been a romantic.

I found all the talk about Tanqueray so interesting. So I was at the WSET Diploma Course lecture on spirits on Monday (going to be a tutor and wanted to meet the students) - the lecturer was a fellow who is an expert in spirts, Godfrey Spence. Terrific fellow who worked for the WSET for 16 years. Anyway, I asked him about gin brands and quality, thinking of the Tanqueray mentioned here. He was kind enough to have me taste afterward the Bombay Sapphire, Gordon's and Beefeater (the class wasn't going into these until the next day, so this was very nice of him to do a tasting for me, but he loves the subject...so I was lucky). Those were his three gin samples - he didn't have any Tanqueray. Anyway, it was clear that the Gordon's was much more interesting than the Bombay (which is my go-to for gin and tonic), and that the Beefeater was by far the best, with a real depth of flavor and length. He said that he did a blind tasting (with a gin lover) of Beefeater and Tanqueray, and that that had convinced this fellow, a Tanqueray-drinker, to switch to Beefeater because the taste difference was minimal in comparison with the price difference. Interesting stuff!
cheers, Bonnie

Gin, anyone?

Yes, please! I like spirits for dessert sometimes - a good quality single malt or excellent gin with a drop of water is great after a big meal. The only problem is that I go through about 1 bottle per year, so I don't usually buy a bottle to take home. (I just finished my Hendrick's Gin that I bought a loooong time ago.) I used to go for a cigar and a malt at a good bar near by my house, but the smoking ban has made me stop this occasional pleasure.

We are fans of the Blue Sapphire here. Has to be London Dry, don't you think? (even though I live in the land of genever...the Dutch gin).
cheers, Bonnie

Well, let me ask you a question Bonnie since you're from the Netherlands.
Being a major gin lover, I picked up a bottle of genever the other day. On the back of the bottle it tells how the family has been making it for eons and refers to it as "sweet", which the salesperson said just means not dry. Anyway, do you have any insights you can share as to how I might best enjoy this elixir? Tom V

Tom,most folks here drink genever (also spelled 'jenever') neat, without any tonic or other additions. (I can't stand the stuff myself and never drink it. Only partial to London Dry style of gin.) You have oude genever (old genever) that is made in pot stills (like whiskey or cognac) and wood-aged, and you have jonge genever (young genever) that is made in continuous stills. There are also genevers made in varying flavor styles, like orange, cinnamon, almond, etc, which will usually be called 'liqueurs'. Not sure what you've got there that calls itself 'sweet' - that sounds to me like one of the liqueurs. Is is by Rutte, Zuidam or Bokma perhaps? You asked how to drink this one -- if it is indeed a sweet-flavored style, then it seems to me that some chilling could be called for but I looked on Bokma's website and they recommend their lemon jenever to still be drunk at room temperature.
cheers, Bonnie

Thanks for that info Bonnie, lots of different Genevers, I had no idea! Anyway I ran home and popped the bottle, which is "Zuidam Genever Gin". Definitely softer than a dry gin, not really sweet but I would describe it as having a sweetish quality, it's softer than dry gin, almost a bit more in the direction of Vodka. It has a nice fresh gin type smell. All in all it's pretty nice. I'll have to experiment with it and I'am sure I'll find some fine applications. Tom