Gin glossary

The words that keep coming up on our gin pages: gin styles, distilling techniques, lesser-known botanicals and serving vocabulary. On gin pages these terms are underlined: hover over them to read the definition.

Gin styles

Barrel-aged gin: Gin rested for a while in wooden casks. It picks up a golden colour and notes of vanilla, spice or the wine that filled the cask before.
See Barrel-aged gins
Colour-changing gin: Gin tinted with butterfly pea flower, whose pigments shift from blue to pink when the acidity of tonic or lemon lowers the pH.
Compound gin: Gin made without redistillation, by blending botanicals or extracts into neutral spirit.
See Compound gins
Contemporary gin: Also called New Western: juniper is still there, but other botanicals (citrus, flowers, spice) take the lead.
See Contemporary gins
Distilled gin: Gin made by redistilling neutral spirit with juniper and other botanicals. Unlike London Dry, flavourings may be added after distillation.
See Distilled gins
Dry gin: Gin with no perceptible sweetness: in the European Union, the word "dry" allows at most 0.1 g of sugar per litre.
See Dry gins
Flavoured gin: Gin with flavourings, often fruity, added after distillation. It may be coloured and lightly sweetened.
See Flavoured gins
Genever: The Dutch and Belgian ancestor of gin, based on malt wine. "Jonge" is more neutral, "oude" more malty.
See Genever gins
Gin liqueur: Gin sweetened and often fruit-flavoured, at 15% ABV or more. Sweeter and lighter than a gin.
Juniper-forward: A classic profile where juniper clearly dominates, with resinous, piney notes.
London Dry: A style, not a place of origin: every flavour comes from distilling natural botanicals. After distillation only water and a trace of sugar may be added, with no flavouring or colouring.
See London Dry gins
Navy Strength: Gin bottled at 57% ABV or more. Royal Navy lore holds that at this strength, gunpowder soaked in gin would still ignite.
See Navy Strength gins
Old Tom: An 18th-century English style, lightly sweetened or rounder, halfway between genever and London Dry. It is back in favour for classic cocktails.
See Old Tom gins
Pink gin: Today, a gin flavoured and tinted pink (red fruit, rhubarb…). Originally, plain gin with a few dashes of Angostura bitters.
Resinous: An aroma reminiscent of pine or fir resin. It is juniper's signature, due to compounds such as pinene.
Sloe gin: A liqueur made by steeping sloe berries in gin, then sweetening it. It is usually bottled between 25% and 30% ABV.
See Sloe gins

Distilling and production

Blending: Mixing distillates made separately, one botanical or group of botanicals at a time, to build the final recipe.
Carter Head: A still fitted with a botanical basket in the vapour path: delicate plants are infused by the vapour instead of being boiled.
Column still: Continuous distillation in a column fitted with plates. It produces a very pure, neutral spirit, the base of most gins.
Cutting: Adding water to bring the distillate, which leaves the still at around 80% ABV, down to bottling strength.
Foraging: Plants gathered by hand in the wild (woods, heath, coastline) rather than grown or bought in.
Heart cut: Only the middle part of the distillate is kept. The overly volatile heads and the heavy tails are set aside.
Infusion: Fruit or plants are steeped in the spirit to release their flavour. Done after distillation, infusion often adds colour too, and the gin can no longer be called London Dry.
Maceration: Botanicals soak in alcohol, from a few hours to several days, before distillation to release their aromas.
Neutral spirit: Agricultural spirit rectified to at least 96% ABV, almost tasteless. It is the base later flavoured with botanicals.
One-shot: Botanicals are distilled in their final proportions, then the distillate is only cut with water, not blended with extra neutral spirit.
Pot still: A traditional still, often copper, that distils in batches. It keeps more texture and character than a column.
Proof: The American measure of alcohol strength: twice the ABV (90 proof = 45% ABV).
Sherry cask: A cask that once held sherry, the fortified wine of Andalusia. Dry, oxidative oloroso brings nutty, dried-fruit notes; Pedro Ximénez brings raisin and molasses.
Small batch: Production in small quantities per distillation run, often in a small still. The term has no legal definition.
Triple distilled: The spirit goes through the still three times before or with the botanicals: each run cleans it up, giving a purer, softer base.
Unfiltered gin: The essential oils of the peels and plants stay in the gin: when chilled or mixed with tonic they turn it slightly cloudy, like pastis (the "louche" effect).
Vacuum distillation: Lowering the pressure makes alcohol boil at around 30 to 50 °C instead of 78 °C, so delicate aromas are not cooked and stay fresher.
Vapour infusion: Botanicals sit in a basket above the liquid, so only the alcohol vapour passes through them, for a lighter, fresher extraction.

Botanicals

Allspice: A dried berry that recalls clove, cinnamon and nutmeg all at once, hence its name.
Angelica: The root of a tall umbellifer, earthy and musky. After juniper and coriander it is the most common botanical: it binds the aromas and holds the finish.
Bergamot: A bitter Calabrian citrus, the one that scents Earl Grey tea: floral and zesty.
Bog myrtle: A peat-bog shrub, also called sweet gale. Resinous and slightly bitter, it flavoured beer before hops did.
Buchu: A South African shrub smelling of blackcurrant and mint, the signature of South African gins.
Butterfly pea: A South-East Asian flower that turns gin blue. When it meets the acidity of tonic or citrus, it changes to pink.
Calamus: The rhizome of a marsh reed (sweet flag), spicy and slightly bitter, close to ginger.
Cassia: The bark of a Chinese cinnamon tree, coarser and hotter than Ceylon cinnamon. It brings a warm, slightly sweet spice.
Cubeb: Indonesian tailed pepper: hot and resinous, with a hint of pine and citrus that extends the juniper.
Desert lime: A small wild citrus from the Australian bush, very sharp and fragrant.
Finger lime: An Australian citrus whose pulp forms tiny tart pearls that burst in the mouth.
Galangal: A rhizome related to ginger, more resinous and camphor-like, widely used in South-East Asia.
Gentian: A mountain root of great bitterness, the base of many aperitifs; it adds length.
Gorse: A spiny heathland shrub whose yellow flowers smell of coconut.
Grains of paradise: West African seeds related to cardamom, also called melegueta pepper: peppery and warm, with a citrus note.
Heather: A small flower of the Scottish moors, honeyed and slightly woody.
Immortelle: A Mediterranean flower (helichrysum) that smells of curry and honey.
Juniper: The one compulsory botanical: gin must taste predominantly of juniper. Its "berry" is really a small conifer cone, resinous and peppery.
Kelp: A brown seaweed from Atlantic shores, briny and rich in umami.
Lemon myrtle: The leaf of an Australian tree with an intense lemon scent, purer than zest and without acidity.
Marsh samphire: A small, crunchy salt-marsh plant that brings a salty, sea-side note.
Meadowsweet: A wet-meadow flower smelling of honey and almond, with a faint medicinal note.
Orris root: Iris rhizome dried for years, then ground. Powdery and violet-like, it mainly works as a fixative that binds and lengthens the other aromas.
Quandong: A wild Australian fruit related to sandalwood, tart, between peach and rhubarb.
Rock samphire: A fleshy cliff-top plant, briny, between citrus and celery. It gives coastal gins their salty edge.
Rowan: Berries of a mountain tree, bitter and tart.
Sansho pepper: A Japanese berry related to Sichuan pepper: yuzu-like aroma and a light tingle on the tongue.
Sea buckthorn: An orange berry from coasts and mountains, very tart, tasting of citrus and pineapple.
Sichuan pepper: Not a true pepper but the berry of a prickly ash: citrus, lavender and a tingle that slightly numbs the lips.
Sloe: A small wild plum from the blackthorn, very astringent raw: it is what makes sloe gin.
Strawberry gum: The leaf of an Australian eucalyptus that smells of strawberry and red fruit.
Tasmanian pepperberry: A wild Australian berry: fruity at first, then a slowly building heat. It can tint the gin pink.
Timut pepper: A Nepalese berry related to Sichuan pepper, with a powerful grapefruit aroma.
Tonka bean: A South American seed with notes of vanilla, almond and fresh-cut hay.
Wormwood: A bitter, aromatic plant, the one behind absinthe and vermouth (Wermut in German).
Yuzu: A Japanese citrus with an intense scent between mandarin, grapefruit and lemon, and very little juice.

Serving and cocktails

Aquafaba: Chickpea cooking water that foams like egg white: the plant-based alternative in sours.
Aromatic tonic: A more bitter tonic, often tinted by Angostura or other bitters. It suits spicy gins.
Aviation: Gin, lemon, maraschino and crème de violette, hence its pale blue colour.
Bitters: Highly concentrated bitters (Angostura, orange…), added in dashes to season a cocktail.
Bramble: A cocktail created in London in the 1980s: gin, lemon and sugar over crushed ice, drizzled with blackberry liqueur.
Clear ice: Ice without air bubbles, made by slow, directional freezing. Denser, it melts more slowly and dilutes less.
Clover Club: Gin, lemon, raspberry syrup and egg white, shaken until it foams.
Collins glass: A straight glass taller and narrower than a highball, named after the Tom Collins.
Copa glass: A large stemmed balloon glass, popularised by the Spanish gin and tonic: it stays cold for longer and gathers the aromas above the drink.
Cordial: A concentrated syrup of fruit (often lime) and sugar, made to be topped up.
Coupe: A wide, shallow stemmed glass for cocktails served without ice, stirred or shaken then strained.
Dilution: The water added by melting ice. In the right amount it opens the aromas and softens the alcohol; too much flattens the drink.
Double strain: The cocktail goes through the shaker strainer and then a fine strainer, which catches ice shards and pulp.
Dry Martini: Gin and a little dry vermouth, stirred over ice and served in a well-chilled stemmed glass, with an olive or a twist.
Expressed peel: The peel is squeezed over the glass, skin side down, so a fine mist of oils scents the surface.
French 75: Gin, lemon juice and sugar, topped with champagne. It is named after the French 75 mm field gun of the First World War.
Gimlet: Gin 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.
Highball: A 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.
Indian tonic: The classic tonic: sparkling water, bitter quinine and sugar. The name recalls colonial India, where quinine warded off malaria.
Large ice: One large block melts far more slowly than several small cubes, so the drink stays cold without watering down.
Light tonic: A low- or no-sugar tonic, often sweetened with substitutes. Drier, it brings out the bitterness and the gin.
Martinez: The presumed ancestor of the Martini: gin (often Old Tom), sweet vermouth, maraschino and bitters, stirred over ice and served straight up.
Mediterranean tonic: A tonic with less bitterness and sugar, scented with herbs and citrus (rosemary, thyme, lemon). It leaves more room for the gin's botanicals.
Negroni: An Italian cocktail of equal parts gin, sweet vermouth and red bitter (Campari), served over ice with orange peel. Born in Florence in 1919.
Perfect serve: The way the producer recommends serving the gin (glass, tonic, ratio, garnish) to show it at its best.
Quinine: An alkaloid from cinchona bark that gives tonic its bitterness. The British in India drank it against malaria and added gin: the gin and tonic was born.
Rocks glass: A short, heavy glass (tumbler) for a spirit over a large ice cube or a short cocktail.
Tom Collins: A long drink of gin, lemon juice, sugar and soda water, served over ice in a tall glass.
Twist: A strip of peel twisted over the glass to release its oils, then dropped into the drink.
Vermouth: An 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.