There’s something I need to get off my chest, OK? Here goes: I have never liked gin. It feels good to admit that, because the assumption is that, being a drinks writer, I should adore any and all forms of inebriation. But I (shock!) have things I loathe just as any other person does, even when it comes to booze. I don’t like cardio or jobsworths, either, and that will never change. I do, however, want to change the gin thing.
I’ve abstained from the expansive world of gin with my philistine resistance to garnishes, tonic water and any glass that requires both hands to drink from. So, in a bid to get over my irrational fears, I put out a call for gin experts to prescribe me a failsafe drink. “If someone says they don’t like gin, I ask if it’s just London dry gin that they don’t like, which tends to be most people’s association with the category,” says Alexander Watson, founder of Renais. “I’d invite them to try something with a softer profile, because there’s just so much variety nowadays. With this kind of gin, I’d recommend a dry martini with a twist of lemon, where the heat of the liquid is taken out a little by the temperature of the drink, and there’s also a small bit of dilution.”
