London's got a thing for gin

Article in London's Evening Standard 

9th May 2011

There is a tipple taking off in London. According to London's top mixologists, gin is back and Londoners, including Alexa Chung, Matt Horne of Gavin and Stacey and Agyness Deyn's fashion designer sister Emily, are lapping it up, and parties are being held in its honour.

Such is the sudden ascendance of the spirit that JJ Goodman, cocktail creator at the London Cocktail Club, believes vodka has had its day.

"It's all about gin these days but gin with botanicals, infused with things like coriander, lemon and orris root. There is a whole generation of people who might have been into alcopops before but whose palates have matured and they now want something different. Underground cocktail bars in London are recreating that gin-palace vibe, pubs are increasing their back-bar selection of good gins like No 3, Chase, Sipsmith and Bombay Sapphire, and even the royal wedding has made people want something good and British to get stuck into."

As well as private dinner parties, young drinkers are imbibing the stuff at literary festivals and, later this month, the quirky bar and eccentric dining room the Hendrick's Horseless Carriage of Curiosities will appear at Brighton's Festival Fringe.

In east London, gin fan Gerry Calabrese, the 28-year-old owner of über-cool hangout The Hoxton Pony, agrees that the spirit's history makes it an ultimately British drink. Last week he launched his super-sweet coconut and grapefruit-infused Hoxton Gin with a night-long party where guests scooped up glasses of gin cocktails mixed with cranberry juice.

"You can't get more British than gin. It's steeped in hundreds of years of history. But the vodka-and-mixer drinkers are waning," says Calabrese.

"People are now prepared to be more adventurous. We wanted something for the modern drinker, and you can knock this back as shots, drink it alone or mix it for cocktails. It works well with ginger beer, too, and the celebs are catching on."

Meanwhile, recently launched Edgerton's Original Pink Gin, which gets its rosy hue from extract of pomegranate, is becoming popular in Soho and, in the Sipsmith microdistillery in Hammersmith, co-founder Sam Galsworthy has seen more than 4,500 Londoners through his doors since it launched two years ago, including 30 for a pop-up restaurant party held inside the distillery. "It is surprising bartenders but there really is a gin revival right now," he says. "Gin distilling appeals to a set of drinkers who want to learn how it's made and regale the other guests at dinner parties. Also, martinis are back - people are trying different things, long drinks, short drinks. But these are discerning drinkers and importantly they want substance over style, they don't want a brand," he argues.

Indeed, today's gin is by no means generic. Damian Barr, who organises literary salons for under-35s at Shoreditch House, gives his guests Hendrick's gin on arrival. He agrees that while it used to be considered an "old lady's drink", "brands like Hendrick's and Sipsmith are showing that it can be more nuanced, more flexible. People want flavour, like the cucumber in Hendrick's. It is a very different product to the one we grew up drinking with our parents."

Galsworthy, too, is defiant: "People talk about the versatility of vodka but I won't have anyone saying gin doesn't have the same quality.

Londoners are always looking for something new to celebrate and right now gin is it."

Full article can be found at This is London.