Go into any cocktail bar in D.C. and you’re bound spot one or two unfamiliar gin brands. And at some gin-centric places, whole shelves are devoted to new gins, confirming what cocktail fans have known for a while now—gin is in.
Just as Green Hat, District Distilling, and One Eight have introduced D.C. to local craft gins, and it’s not uncommon to find craft gin distilleries in cities large and small—especially in the U.S. and Europe. And these scrappy, competitive gin brands are arriving in stores and bars across the District.
Bar manager Ravi Kukadia witnessed the recent explosion of the gin trend while working at New Heights restaurant (2317 Calvert St. NW) in Woodley Park. The downstairs bar is aptly named the Gin Joint and boasts 150 gins from all over the world.
“The restaurant is 32 years old, but the bar started developing in the last eight years. When small distillers started getting in, we started acquiring more,” says Kukadia.
The difference between artisanal gins and the big gin brands has to do with their production, Kukadia explains.
“London Dry gins—the most popular style—are distilled with botanicals in a tea bag (suspended in the still), where most other gins are steeped in the spirit so you get a harsher, malty taste,” he says.
This may sound bad, but it really translates into more flavor and a thicker palate for cocktail mixing. Without it, gin is pretty much like juniper and spice-flavored vodka. Much like the craft beer movement gravitated toward more heavily hopped and bitter ales, the demand for full-bodied gin grew as people were exposed a broader range of gin types.
“I feel that people who had a bad experience with dry gin (complaining that it tastes like pine trees) are opening up to these new flavors,” says Kukadia. And the prices of most artisanal gins are competitive with mass-marketed gins.
Of course, some gins are going all-out to top their competitors in number of botanicals and price. Take Monkey 47, a German gin with 47 botanicals that sells for around $75 dollars for a diminutive 375 ml bottle. And the ultra-deluxe Nolet Gold goes for a whopping $700 dollars a bottle. But these are outliers. Most craft gins are aimed at cost savings for distilleries that typically produce whiskies that can take years or decades to mature. A batch of gin, on the other hand, can be ready in much shorter order.
One of the newest gins to hit D.C. bars comes from Ireland’s independent Glendalough distillery known for its whiskey.
“The flavor profile of our gin is winter flavors like Scotch pine and sloe berries, spring floral notes like daisies, heather and elder flower, and summer roses,” says Glendalough brand representative Brendan Crawley.
This intensity of flavor is important when making a gin cocktail that can stand its ground against even spicier spirits like Cotton & Reed’s Allspice Dram. Try them together in Bar Deco’s (717 6th St. NW) Allspice Rickey, a heavily spiced and boozy twist on D.C.’s cocktail claim to fame. Even though the locally produced allspice dram is overpowering, the floral and citrus character of Glendalough gin comes through.
The Gin Rickey, itself a western state adaptation of D.C.’s Rickey made with bourbon, lime juice and soda, comes close to its original recipe when made with aged gins like Liberator. This award-winning Old Tom gin, a style of sweeter funkier steeped botanical blends, is finished in whiskey casks and non-chill filtered. Try it in the Old Tom Rickey at The Heights (717 6th St. NW), a restaurant with a respectable collection of craft gins.
Today’s gin cocktails are also stepping out of the realm of tonic and soda mixers and moving toward parity with whiskey. A gin Old Fashioned at Hank’s Cocktail Bar (819 Upshur St. NW) shows off St. George Dry Reposado. This rye gin is aged in former tequila casks for a rounder and more caramel balance that you’d expect of a brown spirit.
Hank’s dresses up classics like the Negroni with small batch gin like Bols Genever. The Bittersweet Surrender adds roasted red pepper simple syrup and a chili salt rim to the gin and Campari cocktail. When a London Dry gin like Beefeater appears on their menu, Hank’s adds botanicals of their own to create the Spanish Gin & Tonic, a summer garden of a cocktail with flowers, herbs, and citrus.
Who says you can’t use gin in a tiki drink? A bold gin replaces rum in the Tradewinds, a tropical coconut cooler that you can make at home in a blender.
• 2 oz. gin
• 1 oz. lemon juice
• 1 1/2 oz. coconut cream
• 1 oz. apricot liqueur
Combine all ingredients except garnish in a blender with ice. Blend briefly until ice is crushed, not smooth, and pour into a Collins or pilsner glass. Garnish with lemon wedge speared by a tiny umbrella turned inside out like it was caught by a wind gust.
