What is your favorite gin? And what sort of drinks do you like to make with it? Last night I had my first tonic and gin as well as a martini I think I messed up the martini but the tonic and gin I got right. Thoughts? Opinions? Thanks.

I don't drink enough Gin to really have a favorite,
but I'm buying a bottle, I reach for Bombay Sapphire.
I like it with tonic or grapefruit juice.

After years of calling for Bombay Sapphire, I gave the regular Bombay a chance, and now it's my regular, especially for drinks where gin isn't the forward flavor. Every so often I turn back to Beefeater, because it was my grandfather's favorite.

There isn't much I don't like as gin drinks go--G&Ts, Negronis, even an ice-cold a gimlet (made with fresh lime, please, no Rose's syrup.) But a gin and tonic (or bitter lemon) is really the best when clear liquor weather arrives.

(When it was still in production, I loved Tanqueray Malacca for g&t... then a good friend who worked for the importer told me that they were phasing it out, and he smuggled me about 6L of it from the sample room. It is all years gone now.)

We reach for the Bombay Sapphire as well. Gin and tonics are decent, but we stick with martinis. There are a zillion different recipes for martinis, but here's how we make ours...

Fill the jigger on top of the shaker twice with the gin and pour it over the ice in the shaker.

Take the dry vermouth and fill the jigger about 1/2 full and pour over the ice.

Then we take our olive jar and put a teaspoon of the juice from the jar in the shaker to make a dirty martini.

Shake and strain in a chilled martini glass with some olives.

Like I said, tons of different recipes, but this is what we've found that we prefer.

Bootles for Martinis
Plymouth for Gin and Tonic

I have a bottle of Tanq on the go right now but Hendrick's actually produces a fine little gin.

I really only drink gin with Grapefruit juice as i can't stand tonic unless it has lime or fresh cucmber in it.

When the really hot weather hits it's beefeaters gin and tonic, splash of lime,,,I've always bought beefeater, never really experimented with others,,,down a fair amount of vodka and tonic too on the dogday afternoons,,,,light and refreshing,,,

I have a friend from Ireland,he says in Ireland gin is considered a whore's drink.
You would not go in a Pub and order gin.

Winslow

+1 on Hendrick's for Martinis. I love that gin. Another favorite is Tanqueray Ten - kind of citrusy as gin goes and great for a g&t or Martini.

But Bombay Sapphire, regular Bombay, regular Tanqueray, Beefeater, etc. all make quite acceptable gin drinks!

-Andrew

Winslow, you have me rolling on the floor. My partner Nancy drinks Gin & Tonic with lots o' lime. Wait til I tell her of this post.
If she visits an Irish Pub and not to be considered a prostitute what would your friend suggest for a drink other than beer, ale, or stout???

Cider,hard cider is what the girls drink in Ireland.I'll have to ask Patrick next
time I talk to him but I wasn't joking about the gin and whores.It goes back to
Irish history when you could get blotto for the least money with gin.

Winslow

My wife and I measure the season's by is it G&T season, or not. Once it gets into the 80s, it's a G&T on the porch with bear feet on sleeping dog after work.

Natch

I don't know about Ireland specifically, but Gin was so cheap in Colonial America, Dr's used it in place of water for washing instruments, not because it would sterilize them, but because it was cheap. They preferred water, but Gin would do in a fix. It was part of the "house call kit" as a sedative.

As far as Gin goes, Hendricks’s cold in a glass with a twist. Hendricks’s makes everything else taste like bilge water. If you want something done right, do it yourself, if you want something done better, give it to a Scot.

My absolute FAVORITE summer time gin drink is Hendricks Gin and Tonic with cucumber.

Shave some cucumber into long thin strips (run the cucumber along a cheese grater or something of the sort, skin and all). Put the cucumber strips (about a pipe bowl full for reference) and add gin, and ice into a shaker. Shake vigorously until the gin is well chilled. Pour (don't strain) the Gin, ice and cucumber into a rocks glass and top with tonic water. Don't add lime!

This drink is absolutely delicious! The reason it works so well is that Hendricks is distilled with cucumber and rosewater as well as some other botanicals giving it a pleasing floral undertone to it. When adding cucumber as a garnish, it emphasizes that aspect of the distilling process and adds so much to the drink.

HIGHLY recommended!

-Adam