Welcome back to FTW’s Beverage of the Week series. Here, we mostly chronicle and review beers, but happily expand that scope to any beverage that pairs well with sports. Yes, even cookie dough whiskey.
Most gins trace their lineage back to the United Kingdom, a place where 70 degrees Fahrenheit can be considered steamy weather and the sun was long rumored to be a myth. This is alarming, because there may not be a better hot weather cocktail than the simple, beautiful and thoroughly British gin and tonic.
The simple combination of juniper and botanical slurry with lightly sweet quinine-infused bubbles and a twist of citrus (lime for me, because I am not complicated) creates a crisp refresher that will quench your thirst and, crucially, get you drunk. Crushable is a word that’s been commandeered by the IPA business — more colonizing nonsense — but ultimately it has always applied to gin and tonics.
And thus, as it is 95 degrees in Wisconsin today and the world around us is broiling, it seems like as good a time as any for a G&T taste test. I’m pairing up three relatively new gins — OK, two new-ish gins and one variant from Hendrick’s, which has been around since 1999 but looks much older — to figure out which I want to add to my stable.
And it’s a pretty small stable; my go-to gin is The Botanist, distilled on Islay in Scotland against the backdrop one of the world’s last truly perfect towns. But The Botanist, delicious as it is, can be tough to find in middle America, so it’s time to broaden my horizons.
Engine Gin (and tonic): A-
Engine doesn’t have much of a smell in cocktail form, but it’s apparent from the first sip. It’s light and floral, casting off a burn-less, booze-less first impression despite a generous pour. It’s almost fruity in its profile, blending sweetly with the tonic but retaining the dryness that defines the cocktail.
The juniper you’d expect doesn’t show up until later on. This makes it an easy summer drink in a mixer, and on its own it retains that sweetness but allows a lot more of its herbal side to come into play — a little anise, maybe? It lingers in the aftertaste but not in an overpowering way. That makes it a great gin to offer someone who isn’t sold on the spirit. It’s flavorful but doesn’t overwhelmingly taste like gin as we know it in America.
That makes it a great summer drink. OK, we’re off to a strong start. Let’s see what happens when we make the jump from an Italian gin to one distilled in Scotland.
Tulchan Gin (and tonic): B+
The Speyside liquor offers a lot more head-on juniper from the jump. Where Engine left some room for interpretation, Tulchan is saying straight away “nah guy, this is gin.” It’s potent, but not so strong you’d have to be a gin lover to power through.
Like The Botanist before it, Tulchan leans hard into the landscape of its countryside. The Scottish botanicals ensure this isn’t just evergreen juice. There’s a lot more of a flavor profile here than there was with Engine. That gives way to a gentle sweetness, which creates a well-rounded cocktail that starts in one place and ends in another.
This is more what I expect from a gin, and it’s done well. A sip of the booze on its own unveils a bit more of a burn than the Engine before it, but it’s still nothing you’d have to force down from a rocks glass. Tulchan may not be my favorite gin, but it’s still pretty dang good.
Hendrick's Flora Adora Gin (and tonic): A-
For the Masters I used a gin and tonic variant with muddled peaches and it tasted great. Now I’m jumping in with a more traditional mixer and it’s still pretty dang good. It’s drier than the last two but with a lot more in-depth flavor up front. It really exceeds what you’d expect from a gin and tonic, but all that botanical taste hammers in the idea that, yep, this is gin at the root of everything.
It’s kinda fitting I hit this one third because it covers the sweet, almost fruitiness of Italian gin with the basics of the British Isles. The result is a creamy, complex cocktail that tastes great. Flora Adora might be an acquired taste — someone I was drinking with loved the Tulchan but was one-and-done with the Flora — but it hits a sweet spot for me. I honestly want to soak some peaches in it and see how it turns out.
Would I drink it instead of a Hamm's?
Oh my. Tough call. I had the opportunity this week to take part in Hamm’s collaboration with Wisconsin’s Camp Wandawega and thus drank plenty of cold beers by and in a lake on a hot day. Glorious.
Gin and tonic is a different vibe. I’m not sliding one of those into a thick foam coozie and sipping it in an inner tube. G&Ts are more of a deck-looking-out-into-the-wilderness drink. So call it a toss-up; both are great and this week’s review reminded me of how perfect they are for the summer. It all depends on where you are.
