Gemblue Gin Bartender

Putting the word Bartender on a label is a claim about where a bottle belongs, and it is a claim a three-botanical recipe is unusually well placed to make. Wave Distil runs juniper, lime zest and cucumber through the still twice and bottles at 40%, and what that produces is less a finished statement than a clean surface to build on.

Citrus · Floral · Herbal

Simplicity is what makes a spirit useful behind a bar, and it is a harder position to defend than a long list. Every additional botanical is one more thing that can argue with a vermouthVermouthAn aromatised, fortified wine flavoured with herbs and barks; its name comes from the German Wermut, wormwood. Dry vermouth goes into a Martini, sweet red into a Negroni.Glossary, a liqueur or a syrup, and there are only three here. Lime zest is the loudest of them, sharp and aromatic enough to stand up to citrus juice rather than be cancelled by it. Cucumber supplies the cooling, faintly vegetal length that gives a long drink its body, and it is what makes this recipe work in a highballHighballA long drink served in a tall, straight glass with plenty of ice: a spirit topped with soda or tonic. The word also names the glass.Glossary where a purely citric gin would go thin. Juniper anchors both, classical and clear, and it is present enough to keep the category honest. The result is aromatic and refreshing, balanced rather than assertive, and dilutionDilutionThe water added by melting ice. In the right amount it opens the aromas and softens the alcohol; too much flattens the drink.Glossary suits it better than it would a denser gin.

Neat and over ice both work, which is not always true of a mixing gin, and it is a useful thing to know before a busy evening. In a long drink, use an unflavoured tonic and a great deal of ice, and let the cucumber do the work that a garnish would otherwise be asked for. In a short one, a GimletGimletGin with lime cordial or sweetened lime juice, served well chilled without ice. It is said to come from the Royal Navy, as a guard against scurvy.Glossary is the natural home, the lime in the glass meeting the lime in the bottle. Four medals since 2016, including gold at the Chicago Beverage Tasting Institute and silver in London, suggest the trade agrees. A house that sells the same three botanicals twice is asking to be judged on execution rather than on invention. It ends fresh, citric and clean.