How to Drink Gin

Making cocktails need not be as difficult as it may seem. You don’t have to be an expert mixologist creating infusions and foams and smoke and whatnot to make some quite delicious cocktails. Often the most delightful are the classics that have proved their popularity over time. These are often also the easiest to make with just a few ingredients.

You can find most of your ingredients in the supermarket or online. Have fun creating something new, and in the same way you would choose a gin, let your taste buds decide which cocktails you like.

The measurements used in the recipes are metric. Use the handy table below if you need to convert metric millilitres to imperial fluid ounces:

ml		fl oz
5	................	1⁄6
7.5	................	1⁄4
10	................	1⁄3
15	................	1⁄2
20	................	2⁄3
25	................	4⁄5
30	................	1
45	................	1 1⁄2
50	................	1 3⁄4
60	................	2

The Gin Fizz is the easiest cocktail you will ever make. There are lots of gin fizzes out there, most famously the Ramos Gin Fizz, a monument to creamy fizziness with nine separate ingredients. But essentially a gin fizz is just gin and something fizzy, traditionally soda water. Nowadays you can almost add anything fizzy to your gin to call it a gin fizz. A popular style at the moment is to add Prosecco to gin. If you add a little cocktail syrup, this can become quite a sophisticated summer drink.

Some recipes call for pasteurised egg white to ramp up its creaminess, but this is optional and the traditional fizz does without.

Tip:

Use your favourite craft gin and have fun experimenting with different flavour combinations by adding some of the cocktail syrups mentioned in Chapter 6.

If you don’t have a shaker don’t worry. You can just as easily make a simple gin fizz using a jigger to measure your gin. And if you don’t have a jigger or measure to hand, go freestyle! This really is the most forgiving of cocktails.

Shake the first three ingredients in a shaker with ice then strain into a flute or highball glass.

If using a highball glass fill it with ice first, but this isn’t necessary for a flute glass where it would look odd. If 25ml of lemon juice is too sour for you then just reduce the amount until you are happy with your fizz. But remember, your fizz should have an element of refreshing citrus.

From the easiest of cocktails to make to the one that I think is the hardest. On the face of it, the Gin Martini should be an easy cocktail to make, with only two or three ingredients, starting with gin and vermouth. But a really good Martini requires precision and care.

There are many stories about the birth of this most iconic of cocktails. One is that it was created by legendary barman ‘Professor’ Jerry Thomas. Thomas claimed to have invented it at San Francisco’s Occidental Hotel.

Rather romantic is the story that it was created during the 1800s gold rush in Martinez California. The legend is that a gold miner who had struck it rich wanted to celebrate in a local bar. As they didn’t have champagne the bartender concocted a drink from gin, vermouth, bitters, maraschino liqueur and a slice of lemon. And so the Martinez was born, which later became the Martini.

A more prosaic version is that the Martini brand of sweet vermouth, first produced in 1863, gave rise to a concoction of gin and vermouth, abbreviated to Martini. Presumably by drinkers in a hurry.

Whatever the origin of the Gin Martini cocktail, it is one cool drink and a perfect aperitif as the sun goes down. Even the cone-shaped glass it is served in has understated iconic status. Truly, if ever a cocktail deserved an accolade it is the Martini.

Okay, so it is almost impossible to write this without mentioning James Bond. Whereas 007 preferred his Martinis shaken, many purists will argue that this causes unnecessary dilution and should be avoided at all costs. At the moment the stirred contingent are holding sway. But it may only be a matter of time before shaken becomes the thing again. Time will tell.

One thing everyone agrees on is that your cocktail should be cold. Whether you are shaking or stirring, you must use ice that is fresh out of the freezer, as dry as possible. And if you can, chill your glass in the freezer, too.

Tip:

Choose a gin you like. This might seem obvious, but the character of your gin will determine the character of your final drink. There’s no hiding place in this cocktail for a cheap budget gin.

Shaker (optional), bar spoon, jigger, Hawthorne strainer, fine strainer, lemon peeler, Martini or cocktail glass

Strain into a chilled cocktail glass and garnish with a twist of lemon, lime or orange peel, depending on the character of your gin.

Follow the same method as for the Dry Martini, adding the olive brine to the shaker. Garnish with an olive on a cocktail stick.

Follow the same method as for the Dry Martini, adding lime juice and olive brine to the shaker. Garnish with olives and a lemon twist.

Garnish a Dry Martini with a small cocktail onion (yes really) to make a Gibson.

In the gin sour category, the Gimlet has a sweet, tart, sharpness about it that makes a refreshing summer drink on a hot day. Pale and interesting in a Martini glass with a simple lime wheel for garnish, it looks great: subtle and understated.

Made with 5 parts gin to 1 part lime syrup. Rose’s Lime Juice Cordial is traditionally used. The Gimlet is the simplest of cocktails to make. But don’t let its simplicity fool you. You will still need to take care in preparing it to avoid a sickly sweet mess.

Established in 1867 by Lauchlan Rose, Rose’s Lime Cordial was originally devised to preserve lime juice with sugar rather than the more traditional rum. It was given to sailors to combat scurvy or vitamin C deficiency. Rose imported limes from the West Indies to the docks in Leith, Scotland and on to his factory in Commercial Street. With the Royal Navy also based in Scotland at Leith, Rose had a ready customer. His lime cordial industry boomed and can claim to be the first manufacturer of a concentrated fruit drink. Today the cordial is made by the Coca-Cola company and is still going strong.

Tip:

Use your very best London Dry Gin. Remember there are only two ingredients in this one. Use cheap and it will show. A fruity, flavourful gin like Beefeater will stand up to the sweetness of this cocktail.

Shaker, bar spoon, jigger, Hawthorne strainer, fine strainer, lime squeezer, Martini or cocktail glass

Double strain through a Hawthorne strainer and fine strainer into a chilled martini glass to catch any small pieces of ice.

Perfect in summer using fresh basil, the Gin Basil Smash is a relatively new cocktail, an infant in the world of mixology. Created July 2008 by Joerg Meyer, owner and bartender of the Lion Bar de Paris in Hamburg, this is his signature cocktail and was originally called Gin Pesto. It won an award for the Best New Cocktail at The Tales of the Cocktail Spirited Awards in July 2008.

Tip:

Don’t use your best, most expensive gin. Traditionally, Hendrick’s gin is used for this cocktail, but as the flavour of the basil does dominate, any good-quality gin will do.

Shaker, muddler, jigger, Hawthorne strainer, fine strainer, lemon squeezer, any glass you fancy

Muddle (see page 90) the basil leaves with the lemon juice in the shaker. Give them a real bashing.

Fill a glass with ice. Double strain the smash into the ice-filled glass through a Hawthorne strainer and fine strainer to catch any green bits.

The Basil Smash lends itself to lots of variations. Try substituting cilantro leaves (coriander) for the basil. While not as pretty a vivid green as the Gin Basil Smash, the result is nevertheless rather delicious with a fresh greenness and slight spiciness.

The signature cocktail of celebrated bartender Salvatore Calabrese, ‘The Maestro’, the Breakfast Martini is a modern classic and a cousin of the Gin Martini.

One morning in 1996, while enjoying his toast and marmalade at breakfast, it struck him that marmalade would make a delicious addition to a cocktail. At the time he was working at the Library Bar at The Lanesborough Hotel in London.

The Breakfast Martini is in good company. Harry Craddock’s 1930 The Savoy Cocktail Book also mentions a marmalade cocktail. And Salvatore has inspired other bartenders to create their own sweet concoctions based on preserves.

The Breakfast Martini is a sweet cocktail with a sharp edge from the lemon. A great marmalade cocktail. Utterly delectable and good at any time of the day.

Tip:

Beefeater is a good gin to use as it has a fruity flavour without being dominant and remains true to its juniper roots.

Shaker, bar spoon, jigger, Hawthorne strainer, fine strainer, lemon squeezer, Martini or cocktail glass

Double strain through a Hawthorne strainer and fine strainer into a Martini glass.

This cocktail is a gin classic whose origins are as cloudy as the drink. Two Harrys can lay claim to being the creators of this citrus colossus in the world of cocktails.

Harry one is the Harry Craddock of the 1930s The Savoy Cocktail Club book fame, in which he printed a recipe of this creation. Note, however, that printing a recipe does not warrant creatorship over the cocktail.

Harry two is Harry MacElhone. He is said to have originally used crème de menthe in the recipe before wisely switching to gin when he opened his own bar, Harry’s New York Bar, in Paris.

Tip:

If you find the dry shaking difficult in this particular recipe, you can cheat by using a mini electric whisk of the kind you would use to froth milk. In this case, I think it’s perfectly acceptable.

Add all the ingredients to a cocktail shaker and dry shake very vigorously for about a minute. You want the egg white to emulsify with the other ingredients.

Double strain through your Hawthorne and fine strainers into a coupe glass. Garnish with orange peel in as fancy a way possible.

A Broadway smash of a cocktail, the Floradora is an intriguing combination of raspberry and ginger flavours. It was originally devised at the turn of the twentieth century for a chorus girl – one of the ‘Florodora’ girls in a successful West End musical comedy that ran for 455 performances and half a century in London. It later transferred to Broadway where it was an even greater success, with over 500 performances. And for a time the Floradora was similarly popular in the bars of New York.

The unashamedly pink and girly Floradora cocktail, which faded from the limelight towards the end of the century, is now currently experiencing a long overdue revival. Easy to make, even without a cocktail shaker (you can just stir in the ingredients), it manages to be both sweet and spicy. The sweetness of the raspberry is offset by the spicy heat of the ginger ale and is an unusual combination. Normally you would partner rhubarb with ginger, but here raspberry is the unexpected yin to ginger’s yang. Use a ginger ale with real bite for a definite kick. You can garnish with raspberry and a wedge of lime, but a sprig of mint takes the garnish to another level.

Tip:

You may want to lessen the alcohol content by changing the 50ml shot to a 25ml one. Alternatively, you can swap the syrup for a raspberry liqueur for a more boozy cocktail.

Gently bruise the leaves of the mint before placing in the cocktail. The aroma of the mint will fool the brain into thinking you are drinking something minty, adding another layer of flavour to the cocktail.

Add the gin, raspberry syrup and lime juice to a cocktail shaker. Shake dry then add ice. Shake again.

This love it or hate it brilliantly vermillion, bitterly herbaceous, uncompromising Italian cocktail is currently enjoying something of a revival. The Negroni is an acquired taste. If you are not used to bitter aperitifs it may come as something of a shock. Campari is the culprit. The gin and vermouth are there to soften the blow. The Negroni is a drink you will love or loathe, sometimes at the same time in equal measure.

Like a lot of cocktails, its origin is hazy. It differs from the Americano only by the substitution of gin for soda water. And as such it is purported to have come about when Count Camillo Negroni asked bartender Fosco Scarselli to pep up his favourite aperitif at the Caffè Casoni in Florence, Italy in 1919. An alternative version of its history is that another Count de Negroni invented the drink in Senegal in 1857.

Whatever the origin, the Negroni family didn’t hang about and capitalised on its popularity by founding the Negroni Distillery in Treviso, where they made ready-made versions of the cocktail.

Now at 100 years old, this venerable cocktail is listed as one of The Unforgettables on the list of the International Bartenders Association official cocktails. And it truly is an unforgettable gin cocktail, once tasted, never forgotten. You will learn to love its bitterness.

Tip:

If you really find this too bitter, try adding a splash of lemonade. It will transform the Negroni – just don’t tell anyone.

Try not to use your special craft gin unless it’s particularly robust. It will be bullied out by the Campari. It must be a good-quality gin, though.

Stir with a bar spoon. This is one of those cocktails that should not be shaken. The tiny shards of ice that would inevitably get mixed into the cocktail will alter the mouthfeel of the finished drink.

A riff on a gin sour, this cocktail is evocative of autumn. Created in 1984 by the innovative Dick Bradsell when he was working as Head Bartender at Fred’s Club in Soho, the Bramble is redolent of the season of ‘mists and mellow fruitfulness’. Not surprising then that it was born out of the inventor’s nostalgia for a childhood spent picking blackberries from damp hedgerows on the Isle of Wight.

Although he was responsible for many of the neo-classic cocktails of the 1980s and 90s, including the Espresso Martini, Dick’s favourite was said to be the Bramble.

Tip:

For a fruity twist on this rather lovely cocktail try substituting the syrup with crème de cassis for a sharp blackcurranty punch, or crème de framboise if you have a sweet tooth and a liking for raspberries.

Add the first three ingredients to an old-fashioned glass half filled with crushed ice.

Drizzle over the blackberry syrup or liqueur to create a ‘bleeding’ effect through the ice (it looks better than it sounds).

One of the great classic gin cocktails of the early twentieth century, the Sling is probably one of those few cocktails where it is possible to have a little paper umbrella sticking out without being laughed at. Well, probably.

Ngiam Tong Boon, bartender at the Long Bar in Raffles Hotel, Singapore, is credited with creating this iconic cocktail based on the already popular Gin Sling. As is always the case with cocktails, the exact date of origin and the exact recipe are open for debate. But at least in this case, the name of the creator isn’t in any doubt.

This recipe is the fruity Tiki-style one used by the modern Raffles Hotel for those of you with a sweet tooth. There are other variations.

Shaker, bar spoon, jigger, lime squeezer, Hawthorne strainer, fine strainer, highball glass

Shake all the ingredients apart from the soda water together with ice in a shaker.

Top up with soda water. Garnish with a maraschino cherry and a lemon wedge. Making a Singapore Sling is probably the only time you can get away with adding a little paper umbrella to your cocktail.

CHAPTER 8

MASTER 10 EASY CLASSIC GIN COCKTAILS