Matthew's Journal

I happened to read an article on some of these new gins that are all the rage these days, and I was struck by the variety of ways the reviewers thought the various gins should be combined with tonic - varying from 1:1 over crushed ice to long with pink grapefruit and cracked black pepper. So, how do you have your G&T, by preference?

[Poll #2021064]

For a bonus question, tell me what gin you think I should try...

We were out shopping today, and this caught my eye. Beefeater is a gin I'm generally not that impressed by, but I thought their new offering "Beefeater 24" would be worth a taste. The gimmick is that they infuse the botanicals (including Sencha tea) for 24 hours before distillation. Neat, there's quite a citrus nose (although not as marked as Tanqueray Rangpur), although the juniper taste is much stronger on the palate. Made long with tonic, however, the result is very pleasant - quite a sweet taste, with orange and grapefruit in evidence.

The flip side, however, is that it's pretty expensive - around £20 for a .7l bottle when not reduced (which it was today). I'm not sure it's quite worth the premium price tag, as it isn't up to Tanqueray 10 quality.

atreic brought me a bottle of this back from the US. It's additionally infused through rangpurs, as well as ginger and bay leaves and the usual Tanqueray botanicals. There is a definite limeyness to the smell and taste, and it's perhaps a little softer than I remember Tanqueray being neat (we don't have any ordinary Tanqueray in at the moment). If anything, the citrus smell comes through more when you add a little tonic. Some reviews I've read say the lime taste is strong to the point of overpowering; I have to disagree - if anything, it could cope with more lime!

I'm afraid it's only available in the USA at the moment, but I might give you some if you visit and ask nicely ;-)

I think the gin-tasting went pretty well, all things considering. I just about managed to fit 240 glasses in my little car, and got them home from Tesco without mishap. The process of setting them up and pouring out 17 2cl measures of each of the 14 gins took about 2 1/2 hours. This also meant that some gins were left out for really quite a long time before being drunk (I started at 4, and the last gins got tasted after midnight), which has been suggested may have done violence to some of them. Maybe next time I'll get some optics (from where?).

I gave people a sheet each upon which to write comments, and divided the gins into four groups:

1. Gordons (£10.98/37.5%), Bombay Sapphire (£14.24/40%), Plymouth (£13.48/41.2%), Tanqueray (£13.55/43.1%)
   
2. Juniper Green Organic (£11.47/37.5%), Greenalls (£9.99/40%), Gordons distillers cut (£13.29/40%)
   
3. Millers (£17.99/40%), Tesco Finest (£8.97/43%), Tesco (£6.98/37.5%), Tanqueray 10 (£22.50/47.3%)
   
4. Hendricks (£20.00/41.4%), McPaul (£9.99/37.5%), Beefeater (£12.99/40%)
   

Everyone else was blinded, therefore (since I just labelled them A-N), and I could remember at least some of that ordering. I suggested people picked a group to start with and worked from there, so we didn't all end up trolleyed by the time we reached "M" or so. Water (room temperature) and chilled tonic were provided (with a measure), along with dry Martini. Someone drinking all of each measure would consume 11.3 units in the evening.

Some potted results:
Bombay Sapphire - many people thought this was horrible, even those who would normally consider themselves fans. We should try that again when it's not been sitting out for hours.
Plymouth - seemed to be generally preferred of the first group, somewhat sweet-tasting, perhaps?
Juniper Green Organic - ironically, several people remarked that they though this tasted "synthetic" or "fake". Not popular (I didn't sell the remnant!)
Gordons Distillers Cut - smelt spicy, tasted interesting; certainly a "different" gin - some people liked it, others didn't, or felt it didn't go with tonic.
Millers - a cucumber-like smell and taste lead many people to think this was Hendricks. One of the more popular gins
Tesco Finest - while I thought this was rather sour and not particularly nice, others found it pleasant (if not overly complex), and good with tonic
Tesco - I think just about everybody found this horrible!
Tanqueray 10 - Probably the favourite gin of the tasting, although some people found it a bit much. Complex flavours, which survived being mixed with tonic.
Hendricks - this had an odd vegetably smell, but tasted unremarkable, and wasn't very popular. Given the marketing, we were suprised by this.
McPaul - variously considered to smell smoky, woody or like cloves; the taste vanished into tonic.

I'd be pleased to have any further comments from those who attended (and indeed answer any questions!).

I have acquired the gins for Friday:
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