Gin

London Dry

London Dry is a production method, not a place — it requires all flavoring to happen during distillation itself, with nothing added afterward except water. The result is typically crisp, juniper-forward, and the closest thing gin has to a classical reference style. Because no sweetening or coloring is permitted after distillation, London Dry gin relies entirely on the botanical recipe and the distiller's skill in balancing them during the still run, making it a useful benchmark against which more experimental modern gins are often compared.

Despite the name, the vast majority of London Dry gin today is not actually distilled in London — the term is a legally defined production method recognized across the EU and UK regardless of where the distillery sits, much like how “Greek yogurt” describes a straining process rather than a geographic origin. Several of the world's best-known London Dry brands are in fact produced well outside the city itself.

Plymouth & Old Tom

Plymouth gin is a protected geographical style made only in Plymouth, England, generally softer and more citrus-forward than London Dry. Old Tom gin, a slightly sweetened style popular in the 18th and 19th centuries, nearly disappeared before a recent revival, and forms a historical bridge between genever (gin's malty Dutch ancestor) and modern dry gin. Old Tom's modest sweetness made it especially well suited to early cocktail recipes designed before modern dry gin existed, which is part of why several pre-Prohibition classics taste noticeably different when made with an Old Tom rather than a London Dry gin.

Plymouth's protected status means, unlike London Dry, only a single distillery currently produces gin under that name — a rare case in the spirits world of a style and a specific producer being effectively synonymous, similar in principle to how only one house can currently call itself Chartreuse.

New Western / Contemporary Gin

Since the 2000s, a wave of “New Western” or contemporary gins has rebalanced the botanical mix toward citrus, florals, or even savory notes like cucumber or seaweed, while keeping just enough juniper to remain legally gin. This category is responsible for much of the recent craft-gin boom, and has pushed many producers toward increasingly regional or hyper-local botanical sourcing — foraged coastal plants, native flowers, and other ingredients meant to give a gin a distinct sense of place, similar in spirit to terroir in wine.

Critics of the New Western trend sometimes argue it pushes gin so far from its juniper-forward roots that the category risks losing its own identity; defenders counter that gin's legal definition was always broad enough to accommodate exactly this kind of experimentation, and that juniper's continued legal presence, however minimal, keeps the style tethered to its origins.

Genever

Gin's direct ancestor, Dutch and Belgian genever, is distilled from a malted grain base (closer to whiskey) rather than a neutral spirit, giving it a maltier, heavier character that most modern gin has moved away from. Oude (old style) genever retains much of this malty backbone and is often aged briefly in wood, while jonge (young style) genever has shifted closer to a modern neutral-spirit profile — meaning the two ends of the genever spectrum can taste almost as different from each other as genever does from modern London Dry gin.

Genever is traditionally sipped neat and chilled from a small tulip glass rather than mixed into cocktails, a serving custom that reflects its closer kinship to whiskey than to the citrus-and-tonic culture built up around modern gin. Its relative obscurity outside the Netherlands and Belgium is part of why so few drinkers realize gin has a maltier, older sibling still made today.

Navy Strength Gin

Navy strength gin, bottled at 57% ABV or higher, traces its name to a naval tradition of proofing spirits strong enough that they would still ignite gunpowder even if spilled on it — a rough but effective field test in the era before reliable hydrometers. Today the term signals a bolder, more intense style meant to stand up strongly in cocktails, though the historical justification for the specific proof point is largely ceremonial rather than functional in a modern bottling.

Because higher proof intensifies aromatic compounds proportionally, navy strength gins often taste noticeably more concentrated rather than simply more alcoholic — a useful option in cocktails with a lot of dilution or competing strong flavors, where a standard-proof gin might otherwise get lost.

How Botanical Recipes Are Built

Distillers typically divide a gin's botanical bill into categories that play different structural roles: juniper as the mandatory backbone, citrus peel for brightness, root spices like angelica and orris for earthiness and to help bind other aromas together, and a rotating cast of “top note” botanicals — florals, herbs, exotic spices — that give a particular gin its individual signature. Balancing these categories, rather than simply adding more botanicals, is what separates a well-constructed gin from a muddled one.

Orris root, made from dried iris rhizomes, deserves particular mention as one of gin's most important but least discussed botanicals — it doesn't contribute much flavor of its own, but acts as a fixative, helping the other volatile aromas bind together and linger longer both in the bottle and on the palate.

Vapor Infusion vs. Steeping

Distillers extract botanical flavor one of two main ways: steeping (macerating botanicals directly in the base spirit before distillation, which tends to produce a heavier, more robust result) or vapor infusion (suspending botanicals in a basket above the liquid so only their volatile aromatic vapor passes through during distillation, generally yielding a lighter, more delicate spirit). Many producers combine both techniques within a single recipe, steeping heavier botanicals like juniper and roots while vapor-infusing more delicate florals and citrus to preserve their brighter character.

Gin's Role Behind the Bar

Gin's aromatic complexity makes it one of the more demanding spirits to mix with well, since its botanicals can clash with or complement other cocktail ingredients depending on the exact recipe — a juniper-forward London Dry generally suits classic, spirit-forward cocktails like the Martini or Negroni, while a citrus-heavy contemporary gin often shines better in something lighter and more highball-style, like a simple gin and tonic. This sensitivity to pairing is part of why experienced bartenders frequently keep several distinct gin styles on hand rather than treating the category as interchangeable the way vodka often is.

Gin's Global Craft Boom

Gin has experienced one of the most dramatic craft-spirit revivals of any category over the past two decades, with the number of small, independent gin distilleries multiplying rapidly across the UK, United States, Australia, and elsewhere — a growth curve driven partly by gin's relatively low barrier to entry, since it requires no aging and can go from distillation to bottle in days rather than years. This accessibility has made gin a popular starting point for new distilleries more broadly, some of which later expand into aged spirits once established.

• Gin
• Juniper
• London Dry
• Botanicals
• Genever