Thirty-seven and a half percent is the floor. European law will not let a gin be called one below that number, and building a recipe at the legal minimum removes the easiest tool a distiller has, since alcohol carries aroma and less of it carries less. Monson's works there on purpose, with seven botanicals and no sweetening after distillation.

Restraint at that strength means every choice has to be correct. Juniper does the leading and is unmistakable from the first sniff, clean and piney rather than heavy, and the recipe is built to keep it in front. Coriander seed follows with a warm spice with a faint citrus edge that bridges the juniper and the peel above it. The peels of lemon and orange supply the brightness, the lemon sharper and the orange rounder, and they arrive early and leave without lingering. Cinnamon and cassia bark are the only warm elements, used lightly enough that they add depth rather than sweetness, and cassia is the coarser of the pair. Angelica root anchors everything with a dry, earthy structure that gives the palate its shape. The finish is clean, briefly spiced and properly dry.

A gin this straightforward is a tool rather than a subject. Its job is to be recognisably gin in a mixed drink, and it does that: a Gin and Tonic built on a neutral mixer with a lemon wheel, a dry Martini where the juniper reads clearly, a Gin Fizz where the citrus does. Ice hard and do not overthink the garnish. No sugar added after the still is the whole London Dry rule stated plainly. Seven botanicals at the legal minimum leaves no margin anywhere, and whether the juniper still reads clearly through a mixer is the only real test of whether the recipe worked. It ends piney, citric and clean.