I remember it well. A long day draws to an end, marking the beginning of an even longer night. We’re at Naughtons Hotel, the landmark hotel at Melbourne University. I order a Dry Martini and a Pink Gin for my associate. A pause. Then the reply. “Er…what colour was that gin again…?”. Haven’t times changed? I mean, not so much in my lifetime, but in the composition of the potions with which society chooses to poison itself. Like other fashions, drinks come and go. I attempted to pursue this philosophy with Mike Royston-Yorke, from Melbourne’s Casey’s Nitespot, and one of its cocktail capitals. “No, I doubt that many of the old drinks will really come back. The ingredients are continually changing. It really comes down to the fact that people drink whatever we put in front of them.” Autumn is heavy-drinking weather, as we watch the last of the Indian Summer slide into the moody season of winter. And to keep an upper hand on the tse tse flies and the malaria, I recommend another look at gin, which until recently was the most popular cocktail-mixer in its class. These days it is hard-pressed by vodka. I think gin is a great cocktail ingredient, better than vodka and the neutral rum spirits. Why? You can taste it! Of course you know that the cocktail still most heavily in demand around world is the Dry Martini, a drink which continues to evolve. Back in the Roaring Twenties when cocktails were beginning to infiltrate the levels of a society which should have known better, the formula for a Martini was rather sweet. To half gin you added a quarter each of Italian white and red vermouth. Later the recipe changed to two parts gin and one vermouth, plus two dashes of bitters and a green olive. Today a Dry Martini is not acceptable unless it contains five parts of Gin to one (or less – it’s no longer statutory) of dry French vermouth. Some may remember this as a `Gin and French’. A `Gin and It’ (It for Italian) is half gin and half Italian (sweet) vermouth with a Maraschino cherry. Then squeeze a twist of lemon over the top to extract the essential flavour. To those with a dry palate the appeal of the Martini is obvious – there’s not even the suggestion of sugar. But I’ll bet it doesn’t feature on a single Jenny Craig diet schedule! Bond is right when he asks for his Martini to be stirred, and not shaken. Gin is such a delicate thing, and it does bruise. Pour some into a shaker and rock it to sleep. Then compare% that to the stuff straight from the bottle…it’s not the same. Gin is a distilled, pure grain spirit with the flavour of juniper berries, herbs and spices. Its precise formula is jealously guarded by each maker. The fundamental flavourings likely to be contained in gin are coriander, cardamon, angelica, orris root, dried lemon and orange peel. Although some devotees claim it improves with age, it is ready to drink straight after bottling. It was invented by a Dr Franciscus de la Boe (who is known as Dr Sylvius), who was a professor of medecine at the Dutch University of Leiden in the eighteenth century. It was intended as a blood cleaner for sale in apothecaries rather than taverns. The good professor’s smooth, scented and inexpensive nostrum soon not only cleansed the blood of countless native Hollanders, but also fired the minds and bodies of English soldiers campaigning in the Lowlands. pThe formula was taken to the cold and foggy isle of England by its monarch William III (of Orange – a Dutchman), whereafter a mass-warming of nationwide proportions has continued to take place. Like a significant percentage of the contents of its dictionary, the English word `gin’ is an anglicization of someone else’s word – in this case the Dutch `genever’, meaning juniper. Dutch or Hollands gin is the deepest-flavoured of all. The Dutch makers of gin use fresh juniper berries which they chop, and add straight into the fermenting mash before distillation begins, and Dutch gin is distilled at low proofs. The result is a drink that is so strongly-flavoured and assertive that it is only rarely used in cocktails – better taken biting cold and neat. You usually buy it in stone crocks. English (or London) gins are drier, more delicate and complex. This is the style of gin made all around the world. For the best Martini, make sure yours is both distilled and bottled in Britain, like Beefeater, Gordons or Bombay. Plymouth Gin was born when a distilliery was established at the fampous British naval port of Plymouth, to make enough gin for the seamen to concoct their Pink Gins, a cocktail originally invented to make the medicinal effects of Angostura Bitters more palatable. Plymouth Gin is usually softer than London Gin. The Traditional Gin Cocktails Dry Martini 60 or 90 ml London Dry Gin 1 or 2 drops dry French Vermouth (Noilly Prat Extra Dry for me) Lemon peel or olive. Stir well with three or four cubes of ice, and pour into a four-ounce cocktail glass. Squeeze the lemon twist into the drink and drop the twist into the glass. Some forbid dropping the peel into the drink. Survivors of the ’20’s often prefer an olive to the lemon peel. Tom Collins: The Tom Collins is another old-fashioned drink that is really nothing more than home-made lemonade sporting a dash of gin. You need: Juice of half a lemon Castor sugar to taste (half teaspoon) 60 ml gin 3 or 4 ice cubes Soda water Lemon slice In a tall glass stir the lemon juice with the sugar. Add the gin and stir again. Fill with soda water or still water, and garnish with a lemon slice. Pink Gin 1 dash Angostura Bitters 60 ml Plymouth Gin 60 ml water (or ice) Swish the bitters around a four-ounce glass. Add gin and dilute with water or ice. Gin Sling 1 teaspoon sugar 30 ml gin juice of one lemon slice of lemon Dissolve sugar in a little water in a highball glass. Add gin, lemon juice and ice and top up with water. Stir and garnish with slice of lemon.,Some Modern Gin Cocktails to Experiment With… Malibu Sting 22 ml gin 2 ml Malibu 22 ml Blue Curacao 30 ml lemonade 60 ml pineapple juice Shake ingredients minus the lemonade with ice and strain into a 10 oz highball glass. Top up with lemonade and garnish with orange wheel and cherry.UViceroy’s Vendetta 30 ml Mandarin Napoleon 15 ml Gordons Gin 15 ml Bols Genever Gin 30 ml Lemon Juice Orange and Mango Juice Shake ingredients with ice minus the orange and mango juice and strain into a large cocktail baloon containing a small amout of crushed ice. Top with orange juice and garnish with tropical fruit in season.
