Gin

[Searush]

Of course we drink Gin & Tonic, but I wouldn't need to put back if we ran out - as we also carry Murphy's Stout, a decent blended Whisky, Red & White wine, a Pimms equivalent, Brandy, Rum and sometimes even a decent Cider for summer afternoons.

I do not run a dry boat, we sail for fun & part of that fun is the right drink, at the right time, in the right place! Variety is the very spice of life.

 

[benjenbav]

Michael Flanders, as so often, had a thought about gin:

"Unaware of the wiles of the snake in the grass
And the fate of the maiden who topes,
She lowered her standards by raising her glass,
Her courage, her eyes and his hopes.
She sipped it, she drank it, she drained it, she did
And quietly he filled it again
And he said as he secretly carved one more notch
On the butt of his gold-handled cane.
"Have some Madeira, m'Dear!
I've got a small cask of it here
And once it's been opened, you know it won't keep
Do finish it up, it will help you to sleep.
Have some Madeira, m'Dear!
It's really an excellent year.
Now if it were gin, you'd be wrong to say yes,
The evil gin does would be hard to assess
(Besides it's inclined to affect my prowess)
Have some Madeira, m'Dear!"

 

[seedog]

And that's just an afternoon sail out between tides??

It is nice to arrive and have a beer followed by a shower. Then a very long and limey G&T. Depends where you are but in Spain would always go for Larios. In UK I have recently discovered the Sainsbury's own label Blackfriars> Not quite Bombay Saph but currently on offer at under £11 and 40%. Very Nice!

 

[Gordonmc]

Gin before tiffin, a malt after, preferably an Islay.
Bombay Saphire is too flowery for my delicate taste-buds and the gin of preference is Plymouth red label.
I have no means of keeping ice on board so its taken pink.
While we are on it, why did Plymouth bring in the silly new square bottles? They don't fit the cut-outs in the grog locker!
Does anyone have a scource for red label in the UK?

 

[temptress]

We have GIN onboard but usually only taken when we have non-sailing guests. Otherwise a selection of Malts or a selection of various Rums is the choice when we do not want/have wine or beer…. /forums/images/graemlins/smirk.gif /forums/images/graemlins/smirk.gif /forums/images/graemlins/smirk.gif /forums/images/graemlins/smirk.gif /forums/images/graemlins/smirk.gif /forums/images/graemlins/laugh.gif /forums/images/graemlins/laugh.gif

 

[Cutter]

Gin, the drink that once seemed terminally unfashionable, is undergoing a revival and is once again the darling of cocktail aficionados. This most quintessential of British spirits - its main style of distillation is known simply as "London dry" - has come a long way since it was first introduced to these shores.
Modern gin's forerunner came to England in the 1640s when mercenaries returned from war in the low countries bearing Holland's national drink, genever, whose use as a potent pre-battle nerve calmer inspired the phrase "Dutch courage".
The pairing of juniper with alcohol - a hallmark of all gins - stems from belief in the medicinal power of a deep-blue wild berry renowned for its complex mix of fragrance, spice and bittersweet pine notes. Juniper was believed to work against everything from kidney complaints to the Black Death.
The accession of Holland's William of Orange to the English throne in 1689 made the Dutch drink - anglicised to "gin" - fashionable, while deregulation of distilling and an import ban on French products such as brandy provided a further boost. Gin's popularity soon spiralled out of control, however, spawning the ugly years of gin madness captured by the artist William Hogarth (hence the nickname, mother's ruin), when London alone produced 14 gallons a year per citizen.

Legislation and taxation eventually curbed the "rotgut merchants", who peddled roughly distilled gin, replacing them with companies run by "gentleman distillers", such as Bombay, which is still making gin to a 1761 recipe. More importantly, technical advances allowed distillers to make an altogether purer gin. Rather than poor quality alcohol disguised with strong flavourings, gin could now be distilled several times and infused with subtler botanical flavourings to produce the clean but complex drink we know today.

While gin retained some of its Hogarthian disreputability in Victorian Britain, the rise of the cocktail in the Edwardian era imbued it with a new air of sophistication. Gin soon underpinned half the drinks on any self-respecting cocktail list.

But gin's star sank with the gradual lowering of the flag on empire, while vodka's fortunes rose as a symbol of cold-war, eastern European chic. How else could a character as supposedly sophisticated as James Bond get away with drinking an abomination like a vodka martini?

Master distiller Desmond Payne, the man behind the venerable Beefeater brand who has worked for 40 years in the gin trade, has little time for something akin to the matt white of the spirit world. "Vodka is a terrible neutral spirit. Gin is a much more crafted thing," he says.

For Payne, gin is the epitome of sophistication, thanks to the unique combinations of herb, spice and citrus flavourings that give each premium gin its distinctness. Orris root from Mexico or Peru, fragrant with hints of violet and earth. Angelica, musky and sweet with a piney edge. Aromatic coriander seeds, evoking ginger and lemon, alongside the intense oily flavouring of Spanish orange peel.

"Botanicals range from fruit flavours through to drier, earthier roots," says Payne. "Citrus notes are the most volatile, they hit you first. But each ingredient - coriander, juniper, angelica - has different trigger points."

While each premium brand varies in terms of flavour, Payne believes the watchwords should be "clarity of flavour and balance". "To get complexity, three or four botanicals isn't enough - the juniper note will be too bitter. But with more than 10 there's a danger the flavour will get clouded," he adds.

Gin's complex charms have seen it find renewed favour in the cocktail world, as drinkers become more aware of its quality. "I'm a huge fan of gin," says Kevin Armstrong, the Match group head bartender, who oversees such venues as the Player and the Milk and Honey, in London's Soho.

As well as benefiting from an awareness of its historic cache and complex possibilities, gin's revival is being further spurred by what Armstrong calls the "new wave" gins. "The new gins tend to have less juniper tone, using different botanicals to soften the edge," he says.

Hendrick's - one of several top Scottish gin-makers - has garnered devotees for its self-styled "most unusual gin", where a final distillation sees the infusion of rose petals along with the savoury tang of cucumber - Dutch cucumber, to be precise, in a neat nod to gin's heritage.

Blackwood's Nordic Dry, meanwhile, is a gem from Britain's most remote producer, in Shetland. During the summer days of midnight sun, wild water mint, meadowsweet and sea-pink flowers are plucked from the cliffs and beaches of Lerwick for a mix that includes violets and turmeric, which give the spirit its distinctive greenish hue. Old Raj is another superb Scottish gin with a rare hint of colour, as well as a dash of spice, thanks to the addition of saffron.

Spurred by this "new wave" of gin drinking, the big players have joined the fun, most notably Diageo's Tanqueray No Ten, whose use of fresh fruit botanicals alongside dried has made it the fashionable base for a 21st-century dry martini. "Tanqueray No Ten is a good entry point," says Armstrong. "It's a little softer than other new wave gins. From there, you can guide people towards heavier styles."

And you can now get organic gin. Juniper Green Organic - along with Beefeater, the only London dry gin still produced in the city - is aimed as much at environmentally aware drinkers (Prince Charles is an admirer) as those drawn to a softer style resulting from organic grain and a mere quartet of botanicals including the aromatic herb savory.

Desmond is keen on experimentation as long as balance remains. "Some gins [such as the US gin Aviation, where they allow lavender to completely overpower the juniper] have got flavours sticking out on stalks. It may be interesting but that doesn't mean it's good. Whatever you add, the key is how it affects the blend and that it makes a good contribution."

For him, the best cocktails rely on a holy trinity summarised as "sweet, sour and spirit". "Most classics are just three, sometimes four, ingredients. It's simply the best way to showcase the spirit," he adds.

History, too, adds a special patina to many classic cocktails, an intriguing temporal garnish. The Negroni (gin, Campari, vermouth), for example, was created for an Italian count in the early 1900s. The Gin Fizz (gin, lemon juice, sugar, cream, orange flower water), meanwhile, was the brainchild of a New Orleans barman, Henry Ramos, in the 1880s, who then kept the recipe secret for nearly 40 years.

Both Armstrong and Payne purr over the Gimlet, whose roots date back to the Royal Navy's 19th-century efforts to get scurvy-preventing lime into hard-drinking sailors. Its most famous proponent, however, was Raymond Chandler's legendary private eye Philip Marlowe, who downed Gimlets with the mysterious Terry Lennox in The Long Goodbye. "A real Gimlet is half gin and half Rose's lime juice and nothing else - it beats martinis hollow," wrote Chandler.

The martini, of course, is so much the epitome of gin drinking that Churchill famously claimed to merely glance at the vermouth bottle as he splashed gin into a pitcher. It also inspired Dorothy Parker to compose perhaps the wittiest words ever written about a cocktail: "I love to drink martinis, / Two at the very most / After three I'm under the table, / After four I'm under my host."



from the Guardian last year

 

[Cutter]

I must have a drink by eleven, it's a deed that must be done.
If I can't have a drink by eleven, I must have eleven by one.

 

[bromleybysea]

Dead right, Tankers for the Martinis and Plymouth for everything else. God I want a drink!

 

[BlueSkyNick]

A quiet day in the office today, then. No victims awaiting your attention?

 

[MissFitz]

Since we're waxing poetical, here's a spot of Ogden Nash:

There is something about a Martini,
A tingle remarkably pleasant;
A yellow, a mellow Martini;
I wish I had one at present.
There is something about a Martini,
Ere the dining and dancing begin,
And to tell you the truth,
It is not the vermouth--
I think that perhaps it's the gin. /forums/images/graemlins/grin.gif

 

[rudolph_hart]

OK, here goes:

Ketel Een jonge jenever in a tall glass, with ice, tonic & lime slice.

(Dives for cover amid cries of "sacrilege!" "pheasant!" and "Phil O'Stein!")

 

[Marsupial]

Definition of a wet boat : heals far enough to spill the gin.

After empting the lockers bottles of gin to run a cable the repair man from Jeanneau was heard to mutter, "another ##### boat with a drink problem!"

 

[KINGFISHER 9]

For those of you who, like myself, can't drink a G & T without ice, and also, like me, sail a boat with no fridge ..... I bought a .75 litre stainless Thermos ... one with a wide mouth for food ... put it in the freezer for 10 minutes then fill it with ice ... lasts through till Sunday from Saturday a.m. .... sun always over the yardarm at 6.00 pm in Gosport! ... /forums/images/graemlins/grin.gif