What is gin?
Gin is a neutral white spirit, usually made from wheat or rye, that has been flavored with various “botanicals” (herbs and spices). While most gins contain a variety of botanicals (the exact recipe usually being a closely guarded secret), the most important is juniper berries: the distinctive “resiny” taste of gin derives in large measure from these berries. In fact, the name “gin” itself derives from the French word for juniper. Distillers make use of a variety of flavoring methods. On the low end of the spectrum, botanical extracts are simply mixed with the base spirit. Most producers of mass-marketed gins steep the botanicals in the base spirit, and then redistill this infusion. High-end gins are usually made be redistilling the base spirit in such a way that the vapors slowly pass through a chamber in which the botanicals are suspended. This latter method produces a more delicately and complexly flavored spirt. The most popular and widely known gins are classified as “London dry gi
