Four botanicals. Juniper, coriander, angelica root and liquorice, and nothing else - a shorter list than most craft gins put on the front label, and the reason Tanqueray still tastes like the reference point it became. Charles Tanqueray was twenty when he set up in Bloomsbury in 1830; production moved long ago to Cameronbridge in Fife, where the original copper pot still, nicknamed Old Tom, remains in service and every drop passes through it during four distillations.

The method matters as much as the list. The botanicals are not macerated or infused beforehand: they go straight into the base spirit and are distilled immediately, which draws a cleaner, brighter extraction than a long soak allows. What comes out is uncompromisingly juniper-led, piney and dry from the first moment, with coriander seed adding a warm citrus-tinged lift just behind it. Angelica root pulls everything back towards earth and keeps the finish tight, and liquorice supplies a faint rounded sweetness that stops the dryness turning bare. At 40% ABV the body is firm, the finish long and peppery, and nothing lingers that should not.

This is the gin most classic recipes were calibrated against, which makes it hard to serve wrongly. Fill a copa with ice, pour 4,5 cl, add 12 cl of Thomas Henry Tonic Water and stir gently with a bar spoon to keep the bubbles intact. A wedge of fresh lime is the correct garnish here rather than lemon - the sharper citrus meets the coriander directly and pushes the juniper forward instead of softening it. Use good ice and a properly cold glass; at this level of dryness, dilution shows immediately.