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Comeback Special
Gin’s Dressed and Ready to Roll
In the last 10 years or so, gin has taken
a beating. Vodka has had a mostly uncontested run of the market, but
now it looks as if gin is poised to pull an Elvis ’68 comeback special.
“Gin is definitely making a comeback,” says Vito Dieterle, a
mixologist who plies his trade at two of the cities hottest watering
holes, Little Branch and Milk and Honey. “Gin is complex, both in terms
of flavor and aroma. It’s simply more exciting to me than vodka. There
a whole aesthetic to gin.”
Converting Palates
How strong is the resurgence of gin? Dieterle says that at both
Little Branch and Milk and Honey, it’s become the house favorite. Every
so often, when a customer asks for a cocktail with vodka, he’ll make it
with gin instead. “
I loved the reaction,” Dieterle says. “Inevitably, the person tells me how delicious it is and asks how I made it.”
Dieterle mentions two new gin distillers he’s favored lately,
Citadel, and Hendricks, the latter of which offers a gin-infused with
cucumber. As for recipes, Dieterle ticks them off with ardor. He
describes a variation on the classic Tom Collins called a Grapefruit
Collins, made with 1 1/2 ounces of gin, 1 ounce of fresh squeezed
grapefruit juice, 1/2 of simple syrup, 1/2 ounce of lemon juice and
three dashes of Peychaud’s bitters, a bitter hailing from Louisiana
that “has more character than traditional Angostura bitters.”
Jacques Bezuidenhout, mixologist for Kimpton Hotels, shares Dieterle’s enthusiasm for gin.“
Gin is finally back in the spotlight,” Bezuidenhout says. “We’re
seeing a decline in sales of cheap gin and an increase in the
consumption of imported, premium gins. Customers taste buds are growing
up. I liken it to the way the wine industry evolved from White
Zinfandel to more sophisticated wines. People are looking for more
flavor, and gin provides that.”
Bezuidenhout refers to vodka as “the Tofu of white spirits.” That
is not necessarily a bad thing, but his point is that whatever is added
to a vodka cocktail will cause the drink to taste like that ingredient.
“Gin, on the other hand, adds another flavor level.”
Bezuidenhout believes that gin has suffered from an image problem
due to the many cheap gins that have been available and the fact that
they usually have been paired with artificial sweeteners like sweet and
sour mix. “
Today, we’re using quality gins and adding fresh juices,” he says.
“I’ve made people who have told me they hated gin some fresh gin
cocktails and the conversion was instant.”
Know Your Gins
One thing to remember, Bezuidenhout says, is that you have to know your gins.
“All the gins on your backbar like Plymouth, Beefeater, Tanqueray,
10 or Hendricks are very different. The botanical make-up varies
greatly, and consequently so do their flavors. Bartenders are starting
to have fun playing around with gin.”
One of Bezuidenhout’s preferred gin concoctions is called Passion.
It’s 2 ounces of Plymouth gin, 1/4 ounce of Campari, 1/4 ounce of
Mandarin Napoleon and 1 3/4 ounces of passion fruit juice.
If there is an epicenter for cocktail trends in the universe,
Manhattan’s Pegu Club would have to be the front-runner. Located on
Houston Street, this upstairs, upscale establishment started by Audrey
Saunders is cocktail heaven. The list of drinks is longer than Manute
Bol’s arms, and many of them were created by Sanders and Pegu staffers.
Significantly, the cocktail for which Pegu is most famous is the
Gin Gin Mule. Served in a Collins glass, the Gin Gin Mule is comprised
of 2 ounces of gin, 3/4 ounce fresh ginger juice and muddled with fresh
mint and simple syrup.
That’s one of Dieterle’s favorites, though he’s quick to mention
the Eastside Cocktail he mixes at Little Branch. Three thin slices of
cucumber and mint are muddled, then added to 2 ounces of gin, 1 ounce
of lime juice and 3/4 ounce of simple syrup.
“If you want to give it some fizz, throw in a dash of soda water,” he says.
Of course, especially in the warmer months, there is no shortage of
fans of the plain old Gin & Tonic. But the new trend seems to be
gin deluxe, which is to say, dressing gin up for a night on the town.
Gin affords bartenders the chance to be cre
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