The G&T was first introduced in India in the early 19th century by officers of the British East India Company. The reason for its rise to fame was that back in the 1700s, quinine was found to be used to prevent and treat malaria. Unfortunately, quinine was rather unpalatable on its own and so those clever army chaps decided to add a splash of the good stuff, a tad of sugar, a squeeze of lime and water – thus the G&T was born !
Discover 3 exquisite couples :
Xellent Swiss Edelweiss Gin + Gents Swiss Roots Tonic Water
A gin on the basis of 100% Xellent Swiss Vodka. Juniper berries, edelweiss and further botanicals like lemon balm, woodruff and lavenders, are used for the production. Reduced with Swiss glacier water on drinking strength.
Gents Swiss Roots Tonic Water, created by Food writer and publisher Hans Georg Hildebrandt, has been thought to prove much less sweet than traditional tonics.
The three main ingredients that give Gents its distinct and subtle flavor are:
- Sicilian lemons
- Gentian (Enzian) from the Jura region
- Swiss beet sugar
If you are a drinker of premium handcrafted gins and other spirits that mix well with tonic water, Gents is the ideal mixer. Its light effervescence and delicate flavors will highlight those found in your gin – and make them sing. Gents is a premium and affordable tonic water that should definitely grace your home bar. (Newly Swissed)
If Hamburg and Portugal had a gin love-child, it would be Gin Sul, a simple and fresh variety made with botanicals and affectionately distilled in small batches. The citrus notes, owed to giant lemons from the Algarve and a Mediterranean flower famous for its fragrant leaves, make this gin special. Many including Christian Kern treasure the gin for its “floral and citrus aromas, hints of liquorice and vanilla and juniper background” which make it aromatic and smooth. Owner Stephan Garbe distills the gin slowly in a homeopathic capacity using 100 liter copper pots. The alcohol vapors rise through a spirit basket which is filled with lemon peel, rosemary sprigs, and rose petal. (Mixology)
I chose to pair it wirth tonics from Aqua Monaco (Munich), who withdraws the water for its products from the glacial runoff of the “Münchner Schotterebene” (engl.: “Munich gravel plain”). Only selected and untainted natural ingredients as well as said glacial water are utilised to create Aqua Monaco Tonic Water. Due to the fact that the water has been resting for about 10,000 years its perfectly suitable as a basis for drinks of all kinds. The result is a Tonic Water with subtle quinine aromas, which is perfectly suitable for being enjoyed either neat or in a cocktail. (Urban Drinks)
Cotswolds Dry Gin + Fever Tree Tonic
This is another fantastic addition to the fast-growing Gin craft movement. Using pure wheat spirit, juniper, coriander and angelica is steeped for 12 hours before adding locally sourced lavender, bay leaves, grapefruit, lime, black pepper and cardamom to produce a full-bodied but thoroughly refreshing Gin ! (Flaviar)
“We distil our gin incredibly slowly and we pack it full of botanicals. After an overnight maceration of our base botanicals; juniper, coriander seed and angelica root, we add in the remaining botanicals to our still for an eight hour distillation. This means that our gin has an exceptionally high botanical content allowing us to achieve the luscious mouth feel, even at 46% abv, coupled with the big nose and full flavour.
All of this flavour, aroma and mouth feel is down to the high levels of essential oils in our gin. At 46% and at room temperature these oils remain dissolved in the alcohol, but when you chill the gin or dilute it, the oils separate slightly causing the cloudiness you see in our Cotswolds Dry Gin. We could prevent this from occurring by chilling the gin, encouraging cloudiness and then filtering this out, but by doing so we would be removing the flavour which is contained in the suspension of these oils.
We’ve decided to keep our gin as it is; non-chill filtered, keeping the cloudiness, the full flavour and aroma and the mouth feel. Much like a fine single malt, we are celebrating the cloudiness and the flavour that this represents, creating and coining the ‘Cotswolds Cloudy G&T“Said the team behind this incredible gin.
Fever Tree Tonic has proved extremely popular amongst bartenders & gin enthusiasts as a tonic of choice. It is quite dry and forward on the palate, lightly carbonated. The brand only uses natural ingredients, including sugar cane syrup, giving it a fuller mouth-feel with a hint of sweetness without a sugary taste. Even if you can drink it quite happily on its own, it’s even better to mix it with some gin for a refreshing G&T.
You can still taste the spices of the spirit and it gave a clean aftertaste. For someone who loves dryness in his wine and drinks generally, this is the perfect tonic to pair with gin, and it marries perfectly with Cotswolds Dry Gin !
Tell me which one of those marriages you’d like to attend !
