5 Steps to the Perfect Gin & Tonic

Sometimes there’s no better drink than that carefully crafted Gin & Tonic on a hot summers day to quench your thirst. But how do you capture the magic of that perfect Gin and Tonic?

 

Here’s our short guide.

1. Let’s start with the gin.

For us, the gin has to match your taste preferences and the occasion. That’s why we distill two very different expressions of Forager’s Gin: Forager’s Yellow Label Gin which evokes the feeling of summer: soft floral notes, a beautiful hint of sweetness and a nice undercurrent of warming spice. Forager’s Black Label Gin on the other hand is our wonderfully crisp, juniper forward, super-rich, elegant craft gin which has a wonderful natural salinity from the inclusion of Sea Buckthorn.

2. Next you want to think about the glass.

For Forager’s Gin, with it’s fresh hand-foraged botanicals and amazing aromas there is nothing better than a balloon glass – kind of like an oversized wine glass – that will capture those stunning aromas, stimulating your senses and enhancing your G&T experience.

3. Ice?

Another reason for a large glass is that you will be able to place a ton of ice in there. Why do you want to do this? simple. You want to ice to chill the drink, and not just dilute it. The more ice you use, the less dilution you get. Well at least initially.

4. Great Tonic.

Tonic, at it’s heart a simple balance of bitter and sweet. Too sweet, or too bitter, and it will prevent you tasting certain flavors. Also in our opinion if a tonic is too heavily carbonated it spoils the enjoyment. Based on these simple parameters we have search the world of tonic waters can find no tonic better than that of BTW Tonic Water. It’s also the UK’s only craft Tonic Water, made the traditional way – that’s why it has a wonderful golden hue.

As for ratios, this is personal preference, but we’d suggest somewhere between a ratio of 1:2 of 1:4 parts gin to tonic works best.

5. Garnish.

Far too many G&T’s are becoming more like miniature fruit salads than drinks. To us, garnishing should be a simple affair: a small, elegant ode to the gin and it’s flavors, and therefore should bring out flavors all ready present in the gin – not add new ones.

As a simple rule, taste the gin without tonic and garnish. Detect what flavors you pick up and which you want to enhance and go with it. For us, Forager’s Yellow Label Gin & Tonic, the perfect garnish is a couple of thin slices of red apple: it brings out the freshness and sweetness already in there from the apple we use in the botanical mix.

As for a Forager’s Black Label Gin & Tonic, we’d typically recommend just a couple of juniper berries, or if you want to enhance that warm citrus stemming from the Sea Buckthorn used in Black Label’s botanical bill, try some fresh orange peel.

So there you have it. Your simple guide to the perfect Gin & Tonic. Enjoy.