How to make gin (2024)

FAQs

What are the three key ingredients in gin? ›

The primary three ingredients used in the majority of gins are juniper, coriander and angelica. Even though these are the most popular, there are hundreds of flowers, roots, fruits, berries and nuts that are used to create a palate for each gin that makes it distinctive.

Juniper Berries

“It wouldn't be gin without juniper, you can smell gin just by crushing a juniper berry in your hand.” Red Door Gin's signature botanical is punchy, piney and fresh flavoured.

Combine vodka and juniper berries in a sealable glass jar and steep for 12 hours. Add coriander, chamomile, lavender, cardamom, bay leaf, allspice, and grapefruit peel. Seal jar and shake, then let steep for an additional 36 hours.

A definition of gin

It's also possible that a gin is obtained by adding essences or aromas to ethyl alcohol - the so-called "compound gin". Let us start by introducing the four main gin botanicals, namely: juniper berries, coriander seeds, citrus fruit peels, and orris root.

Most Gins contain next to Juniper berry and citrus botanicals such as lemon and bitter orange peel, anise, angelica root and seed, orris root, liquorice root, cinnamon, cubeb, savoury, lime peel, grapefruit peel, dragon eye, saffron, baobab, frankincense, coriander, nutmeg and cassia bark.

A bad gin will taste like pine and nothing else. But a good gin will have a beautiful balance of flavors. Juniper berries are the backbone of gin. Juniper should be the dominant flavor and it gives the drink its fresh, piney character, as well as some of its dryness.

Gin can be classified as a botanically infused vodka. Vodka is called the “conception spirit” as it can be seen as the base from which other spirits are derived. So if you add traditional gin botanicals, like juniper, you can make gin from vodka. But not all botanically infused vodkas are gin.

The flavouring of the drink comes from a recipe of ten ingredients: almond, lemon peel, liquorice, juniper berries, orris root, angelica, coriander, cassia, cubeb, and grains of paradise.

Cold compound is by far the cheapest way to make gin (compound gin). For this, all sorts of artificial or natural flavors, or sometimes also berries and herbs, are simply mixed with alcohol, and that's it. The gin is often filtered after a certain amount of time to remove clouding or solids.

What is tanqueray gin made of? ›

Gin London Dry Tanqueray is one of the best known and most appreciated labels in the world of Gin. Its dry, fresh, delicate and essential style comes from the use of only four main botanicals: juniper berries, angelica root, coriander and licorice.

Gin is made by distilling a neutral grain alcohol with juniper berries and other botanicals to make the fragrant spirit we all know and love. The botanicals are infused into the raw spirit to release their flavours. You can also vary the recipe by adding different spices, fruits and floral elements.

Since most distillers discard any compounds that boil above or below 78°C, the gin is stripped of the molecules that lend color and pigmentation. I'm guessing like me, you don't have a distillation set-up, so the colorful molecules will remain in the homemade gin giving the brown hue.

Gin is made from grain alcohol, distilled with juniper berries. It's the juniper berries that give gin its natural flavor and odor. Vodka can be made from a variety of fermented ingredients and is primarily known as a potato-based drink.

Gin must be a neutral spirit distilled from something natural like wheat, barley, potatoes or grapes. The flavours of a gin come from its botanicals (that's the herbs, seeds, flowers, plants or spices added during production), and, crucially, all gins must contain juniper.

In bartending and mixology, “parts” is often synonymous with ounces. 1 part equals 1 ounce. It's bartending school 101. That means a gin fizz recipe can be expressed in ounces: 2 ounces gin.