I was watching something on the telly recently about boutique gin breweries in That London’s (in) famous East London and was surprised to learn that Gin is in fact flavoured vodka.

Gin is made from grain spirit at 96% alcohol by volume. So its basically pure ethanol. They add some flavours to it by various methods by which time its about 80% by volume. They then add water to make it 40%ish.

I don’t know what Vodka is made of, but I wouldn’t be surprised if it was just grain spirit watered down to 40%.

Doesn’t the other stuff you mix with it mask all the subtle “botanicals”?

That’s one of the selling points of Fevertree: it doesn’t

If the share price is anything to go by, they seem to be about right.

Gin is made from grain spirit

It just needs to be an ethanol made from agricultural sources so potatoes can be used etc. Although I think most gins do use a grain spirit. Obviously potatoes are often used for vodka.

We had a village gin tasting session chez Jate earlier this year (we tried c.16). Conclusion was that Monkey 35 was the nicest with better quality Aldi one a surprisingly close second (the Oliver Cromwell 1599 rather than standard one, although that was pretty good too).
Personally I am very partial to Martin Miller.

Best I’ve tried in ages, don’t put fruit in til you’ve tasted it.

Tried a good few boutique gins over the last couple of years but keep going back to Botanist for high days and holidays. Otherwise Hendricks. Fever Tree.

Aviation for me. Lovely stuff.

For change for get the slice of lemon and try a slice of cucumber, trust me.