Читать книгу Gin: A guide to the world’s greatest gins - Dominic Roskrow - Страница 11

Gin-related spirits: Flavoured gins

This is where modern gin gets most exciting, or where the category is being devalued or destroyed, depending on your point of view. Purists say that flavoured gins are not gins at all, but are flavoured vodkas, particularly where juniper is relegated to the passenger seat. Others argue that there is no difference between these gins and liqueurs.

But it’s not that simple. Firstly, the flavours aren’t added in the most direct sense, but are infused with the gin spirit during distillation, or as part of a maturation process in the cask. And while the natural reaction is to assume that some of the concoctions sound sickly, cloying, and oversweet, that doesn’t need to be the case at all. A new wave of gin distillers argue that they are inventing new styles and exciting new drinks, whether they are strictly gin or not.

Sources for flavoured gins that have been used in the past include Shiraz grapes, clotted cream, quince, and Yorkshire tea. But a special mention needs to go to Sikkim, a Spanish gin using red tea from Sikkim, Tibet, mixed with, among other things, wild strawberries, cranberries, bilberries, bitter orange, and coriander. It is described as pleasant, tasty, and refreshing.