Gin is a neutral spirit flavored with juniper. It is the only major category defined by an ingredient rather than a place or a raw material, and the rule is short: juniper has to be the predominant flavor. Everything else is the distiller’s choice, which is why gin has more variation between bottles than any other clear spirit.
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How it is made
Start with a neutral base. Most distillers buy it rather than make it. It is grain neutral spirit, usually wheat or barley, distilled to around 96% ABV — essentially flavorless. A minority of producers distil their own base, and a few use grape or potato. The base is the canvas; on a well-made gin you should not be able to identify it.
Add botanicals. Juniper berries are mandatory. The common supporting cast is coriander seed, angelica root, orris root, citrus peel, cardamom, and licorice root. Juniper brings pine and resin. Coriander brings a lemony spice. Angelica and orris are fixatives — they bind the aromatics together and give the gin a dry, earthy backbone. Citrus peel brings the lift.
Redistil. Three methods. Steeping and pot distillation: botanicals macerate in diluted spirit, then the whole thing is redistilled, which extracts heavier, oilier flavors. Vapour infusion: botanicals sit in a basket in the still’s neck and only the alcohol vapour passes through them, which gives a lighter, more floral result. Compounding: essences or extracts are stirred into the spirit with no redistillation at all — legal, cheap, and the bottom of the category.
Dilute and bottle. Cut with water to bottling strength. No aging. Gin is ready the day it is made, which is exactly why so many small distilleries start with it.
Styles
| Style | Origin | Base | Defining rule or trait | Tastes like |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| London dry | Anywhere, despite the name | Neutral spirit | Nothing added after distillation but water; effectively no sweetening | Juniper-forward, dry, crisp |
| Distilled gin | Anywhere | Neutral spirit | Redistilled with botanicals, but sweetening and colour may be added after | Varies; broader than London dry |
| Plymouth | Plymouth, England | Neutral spirit | Single distillery; the protected designation has lapsed, so it now reads as a house style | Softer, earthier, less piney |
| Old Tom | England, historical revival | Neutral spirit | Lightly sweetened; sometimes barrel-rested | Rounder, faintly malty |
| Genever | Netherlands, Belgium, protected | Malt wine — rye, corn, wheat | Malt-wine base; jonge and oude denote how much | Closer to a light whiskey than to gin |
| Navy strength | Anywhere | Neutral spirit | Bottled at 57% ABV | London dry, amplified |
| Contemporary | Anywhere | Neutral spirit | Juniper present but not dominant in the drinker’s perception | Citrus-, floral-, or tea-led |
London dry versus genever
These are the two poles. London dry is a production standard, not a place — it can be made in Florida. Under EU rules the term requires that the spirit be redistilled with natural botanicals and that nothing be added afterwards except water and a trace of sweetening, with no colorants. That restriction is what makes London dry the reliable default in a cocktail: you know what you are getting.
Genever is the ancestor, protected to the Netherlands, Belgium, and small designated regions of France and Germany. It is built on malt wine, a pot-distilled grain spirit, so it has body and cereal flavor. Jonge genever is limited in malt-wine content and tastes lighter; oude genever contains more and tastes maltier. Substituting genever into a gin recipe changes the drink completely. That is a feature, not an error.
Old Tom, and the sweetness question
Old Tom sits between the two: gin with a little sugar, the style many 19th-century recipes were written for. If a historical cocktail tastes harsh built on London dry, this is often why.
What “quality” means here
How it was flavored. Distilled with botanicals beats compounded with extracts, every time. “Distilled gin” and “London dry” both guarantee redistillation. A gin that says only “gin” may be compounded.
The base spirit. Cheap neutral spirit leaves a faint solvent edge that juniper cannot fully cover. It shows up in a Martini or a Gin & Tonic long before it shows in anything with three ingredients.
Freshness of the botanicals. Citrus peel is the most perishable element in a botanical bill, and fresh peel tastes different from dried. Producers who use fresh peel say so, because it costs more.
Proof. The EU floor for gin is 37.5% ABV; US bottling requires at least 40%. Gin is nearly always diluted straight to the floor. A 45%–47% gin holds up in a shaken drink where a 37.5% gin goes watery, and navy strength at 57% is built for exactly that.
Additives. London dry effectively rules them out. Outside that term, sweetening and colour are permitted. A pink or blue gin is normally a flavored, colored product.
What does not indicate quality. The botanical count. Twenty-eight botanicals is not better than nine; past a certain number they smear together and no single one reads. Also ignore “small batch,” copper-still photography, and the founding date on the bottle. And note that sloe gin is a liqueur — gin steeped with sloe berries and sugar, bottled far lower — not a gin.
Where it goes in a drink
Two drinks show a gin completely. The Gin & Tonic — 2 oz gin, 4 oz tonic, a full glass of ice — is a fast read on whether the botanicals hold up against quinine. A Martini, gin stirred with dry vermouth, is the harder test because there is nothing to hide behind. Swap gin for whiskey in the Whiskey Sour spec and you have a Gin Sour on the same 2 : ¾ : ¾ ratio.
Tonic matters as much as the gin. Buy small bottles or cans; a large bottle goes flat before you finish it.
Glassware and tool searches are on Shop — jiggers, mixing glasses, bar spoons. We link tools and glass, not bottles. Nearby, The Courtesy in Winter Park is the local room most likely to stir you a proper Martini.
Notes
Category definitions follow the EU spirit drinks regulation for gin, distilled gin, London gin, and genever, and the US standards of identity in 27 CFR Part 5. Plymouth gin’s geographical indication lapsed in the mid-2010s, so it is described here as a house style rather than a protected category.