Gin

I think the name "beefeater" is off putting for most people.

I tend to stay in the mid range - stuff like Bombay Sapphire, Tanqueray etc and it is always nice. The low end like most supermarket stuff and Gordons is pretty grim, and seeing as the mid range isn't much more it is worth the extra outlay. A decent tonic helps too, I usually use schweppes slimline and if I want to step it up i get the Fever Tree light stuff. I tend to find the cheap supermarket stuff is too sweet. Lots of ice and a wedge of lime, fucking love the stuff.

I'd say that you get more for spending a bit extra on gin than you would on vodka. Having said that you don't need to go overboard as there are plenty of reasonably priced ones that are still very good. If you're still just discovering gin, go for something like Bombay Sapphire, Sipsmith, Tanquerray, or maybe even Hendricks. Think about what flavours you like (citrus, earthy, floral etc) and find a gin with that profile.

I'm not the biggest fan of the regular beefeater, but the 24 is nice.

I can find this shit for less than $20 a bottle pretty often, it's bretty gud as a starter gin to branch out from and it's cheap enough to have for all occasions. It has the best cost/quality ratio of any gin I've tasted imho.

Drumshanbo Gunpowder

Picked some up while I was in Ireland. Makes a great gin and tonic, but pretty good on its own. Never was a fan of gin until I tried this stuff

Ah, finally a thread about gin.

For long, the only gins available in supermarkets here where I live were gordon's, bombay and bombay sapphire.
I would need to travel to other places to find Hendrick's, Beefeater 24 or Tanqueray.

So Bombay Sapphire was my go to, Gordon's is turpentine tier.
I've enjoyed Hendrick's and Tanqueray for a while, didn't care much about Beefeater 24. But I've found out about Tanqueray N°10 and fell in love.
Now the Tanqueray range is available in supermarkets, and back in december both were listed at 15EUR/bottle. I asked around the shop and no one knew why, so I purchased 6 bottles before they realized how cheap that was (normal retail price is 35 here).
The only high end gin I have purchased in a specialized shop was Dr Cornelius Ampleforth's bathtub gin, it's all right but twice the price yet not twice as good.
I still have a half bottle of Sapphire East I purchased at the duty free, shit's good but for some reason I keep forgetting about it.

I'm really glad the small batch craft craze has finally reached gin. there are some fantastic gins out there that get away from the standard flavor profile of juniper.

>pic related, if you can get it, is the best stuff on earth. at least according to the International World Spirits - it won the gold medal. I was in a liquor store in DC and met the distillers daughter. we drank about, oh, 3 gallons together and then i went back to her hotel room and hnnnnng. Anyway - maybe its the memories talking, but this stuff is delicious.

Barr Hill is great too.

I forgot to mention Beefeater also has probably the best pouring system design of all alcohol bottles. Aside from getting a speed pour, this system pretty much eliminates shit running down the side of the neck. Maybe I'm just weird but I enjoy when they would go to that length with their design. It's ASMR af.

beefeater is easily the best gin for its money.

I usually get Haymans gin

Nice stuff for around 20 eurps

T. Beefeater rep.

I like brokers, cheap and good to me.

>be 16
>see Bombay Sapphire in parents' liquor cabinet
>think it's probably sweet, maybe blueberry flavored
>take swig
>instant regret

I like gin now but that was a horrible first experience.

Had a similar experience.
>be at a high school party
>taking shots with no chaser because im a real tough guy
>host of the party grabs a bottle of bombay sapphire and tells me to take a shot
>start drinking it straight out the bottle
>driest thing i have ever tasted
>can feel the burn all the way into the pit of my stomach
>think ive been duped into drinking gasoline
>immediately run outside and start spewing everywhere

That was the day i learned that gin is not for shots

>throw party at my house
>friend brings gin
>already drunk and never had it before
>pour it into a cup of cherry Fanta
>get sloshed
>only one at party drunk

What a day

Rum > Whiskey > other "liquor" >>>> Vodka >>>> Shit >>>> Gin

You should go post in this thread:
>

New Amsterdam is gin for people who don't like gin. Which I don't mean to be as condescending as it sounds.
Personally, I can't stand the stuff, it's VERY sweet, almost syrupy, and while I'm not a juniper-fanatic, I'm not a fan of its citrus flavors.

Honestly, the hands-down best value I know in gin is Trader Joe's store brand, Rear Admiral Joseph's London Dry Gin. It's 10 bucks for a bottle, and very good for the price. There's better gins, there's cheaper gins, but this is the perfect intersection of price and quality.

With tonic water, I tend to find the opposite. Canada Dry and Schweppes in particular are way too sweet, syrupy. And the store brands tend to be a lot drier and more crisp, not to mention half the price.
I assume they just use less sugar. The nutrition facts and calories-per-serving seem to support that theory.

Couldn't say with the normal ones, I almost never drink them. I stick to the diet ones as I am trying to be less of a fat fuck (i.e. no beer). Haven't tried Canada Dry yet, will need to get some

More expensive stuff is often quite tasty, biggest problem is that one of the things that can make it good in g&t's or martinis or whatever (that it can stray from the usual London dry gin flavour profile in interesting ways) can also quickly make it taste distinctly of not-gin in multi-ingredient cocktails that rely on that punchy flavour profile; I've had some bad experiences trying to mix Negronis with some top shelf gins which is pretty much a deal breaker for me and sours me on buying them generally, not going to get a second bottle of gin just for g&t's under normal circumstances when a Tanqueray one is already pretty tasty

Booze here is sold only on the state liquor stores and even Beefeater is expensive as fuck (40 euros for 0.75 l). There are some slightly cheaper gin, but I really don't want to buy booze in plastic bottles.

Bought this for the edgy name, stayed for the heavy citrus. I paired it with ginger ale and it was wonderful.

That's pretty weird since it's only about $25 here. And that's even after all the import tax and whatnot. I would've thought it would be a lot cheaper over there.

Non gin drinker here. How the fuck do you make gin taste good. I've had tanqueray which I assumed was mid-level gin but dear god it was gross on ice and with tonic + lime. I'm usually a beer drinker or white rum + club soda + lime.

Mix it with squirt

The juniper taste is pretty divisive. Most of the regular London Drys like Beefeater, Bombay, and Tanq are gonna have that piney taste front and center.

You could start slow with a more citrusy one like New Amsterdam, which is very affordable and good for the price, but lacks depth of flavor. (I wouldn not advise getting Gordons.)

Or you can go with $35+ offerings like Hendricks or Botanist, which have lot more flavors going on. But if you don't like, you're stuck with an expensive bottle.

Or you can just keep drinking the mid range stuff til the taste grows in you. It pretty much comes down to what you want it for. I mainly sip and enjoy the floral notes and am perfectly happy with just a mid range bottle.

Anyone here made their own gin? Found out my housemate has a still.

I like Junipero for a classic gin profile. Plymouth is super clean.

What were your measures? I tend to go for 1/3 gin and 2/3 tonic + plenty ice + wedge of lime. Did half and half once after a few too many and it wasn't very pleasant.

You could also try mixing it with ginger ale, that works amazingly well and might be more your thing.

Tangueray Rangpur is probably my favorite.

GOAT gin coming through.

Brokers is the best

Why do people bother posting '_____ is the best gin'?

Do they seriously think that you can definitively say one is the best for all use cases?

you're the best

Try a gin buck: gin, ginger ale, and lemon juice

youtube.com/watch?v=QWZbRxS_dO4

We got Royal Club over here that sells tonic. Its really sweet. The local lidl sells tonic in summer times which is 2x better for 1/2 the price
cucumber is also a pretty good addition to a gin tonic if you are new to it.

yeah if you're in the great lakes area this shit is great for the price ($25ish).

they recently came out with a 10th anniversary bottle and i wanna try it

GOAT coming through

tastes like Hendrick's but it's $10-15 cheaper

Is Tanqueray number 10 worth it over the regular stuff? It is double the price, is it really twice as good if you are just making gin and tonics with it?

GOAT COMING THRU

That's not gin though, it's genever

Can anyone recommend me a supermarket-tier gin/big brand gin to get?

I'm in Austria, and the large Spar supermarkets always have something different 25% off at Fri/Sat and this weekend its liquor, so I plan to stock up a bit, especially since my Gin is almost empty.

So far I had bombay saphire (ew…) and pic related (fantastic, but from some small distillery), so what should I get now?

What I understood so far from this thread:
>there is not BEST one, but there are shitty ones
>hendricks could be nice, but it's probably too expensive for what it si, due to meme
>maybe I could get Monkey69 or whatever the number, to stay in the black forest, but its probably even more meme-priced
>They sometimes also have some quite expensive Austrian one, that seems interesting, but high risk
>the upscale versions of the big brands are probably OK too, but which one is the best, if I dont like it too junipery?

Try Elephant, Ferdinands or Monkey 47 from your Kraut neighbours

Implying Jenever is not Gin

It's not.

Gin is defined by having a predominant flavor of Juniper.

The combination of malt and unaged coreijnwine that makes up most yunge jenever overpowers juniper flavor. Oude jenever further compounds this - ipso facto, not gin.

>double the price
>twice as good

Anyone who cooks should know that this isn't how it works. Quality is expensive. Once you get past the basics you pay more for things that are fractionally better. You're paying for complexity and nuance.

Take a high end bicycle- $1000 gets you a bike that weighs 24 lbs. $2000 gets you a bike that weighs 22 lbs. not one that weighs 12 lbs. is the second bike "twice as good?" No, it's fractionally better. But if you can appreciate the lightness and the quicker response, it's aces.

And so it is with gin. Or any booze.

No, #10 is not twice as good. There are much tastier small batch gins out there for less.

In honor of this thread I had two gin martinis last night
>Barr Hill gin
>st Germaine
>lemon

Mild Hangover I'm currently feeling is worth it

Gin doesn't really work like road bikes. You're using an analogy that would work better for scotch or brandy or some such thing, where there's a long tail worth talking about with all kinds of stupid shit that no one buys but everyone talks about.

The diminishing returns cliff for gin (as is typical with white spirits) sets in around $30 and there isn't a whole lot you can do if you want to run out there and throw down $150 on gin. Yeah I'm sure some sperg is going to go to buzzfeed and find a counterexample but let's not. I'd go with the commuter bike analogy, in the derogatory sense of the word.

Tanqueray "regular" is the gin equivalent of a Bikes Direct purchase in the $400 range. Probably not the greatest option out there, but not super expensive, and if you're not too dumb you can assemble it into something palatable.

Tanqueray ten is a brand new $800 Trek commuter from the corner LBS. Bland, user-friendly, not the best cost/benefit ratio but they figured out what the man on the street wants, and this is it. People who know better will turn up their nose at it, but customer satisfaction is high because the manufacturer did the research.

He's not wrong you know. That shit is tight and is something I can appreciate.

Just letting you know, Whisky especially bourbon is the most refined and natural drink of the high alcohol content ones, with refined taste. Gin comes in nice bottles because there's not much of class in it.

the true GOAT coming through

really the GOAT?
It's in every supermarket, so it's probably more hype than taste. Or isnt it?

is that stuff any good?
seen it quite often in the supermarkets, but never seen it mentioned anywhere.
around 25€ a bottle, which shoudl be the price for a decent gin.

>great products have to be obscure and low volume artisan
Are you literally retarded or just hipster? Oh, wait...