With the seemingly endless lockdown restrictions still weighing over our heads, it's time to get creative with our weekends at home. This past Saturday I set up a small gin tasting in Frankfurt for me and my partner, and another friends couple. I must say, it worked out rather well, although I'm not happy about the clocks having moved forward an hour the following day, taking away from my Sunday recovery sleep-in!
Anyway, in this post, I'll outline how I tee'd up the evening for success. Any decent at home gin tasting will require the following:
A selection of various gins
A selection of various garnishes
Really good quality tonic water
A couple of glasses for each person
A taste and sensory sheet
SNACKS
A helpful assistant like Tango, the cat (optional)
Gin Selection
A great selection of gin for an at home tasting should include 1-2 standard London Dry gins, like Bombay Sapphire (we used the limited edition with added English rosehip & hazelnuts), and Hendricks (with its trademark cucumber and rose notes). It's good to include a slightly different commercial gin, like Monkey 47, and a few craft gins from micro distilleries. I went for some of my favourite South African gins - Wilderer (unique fynbos and other native mountain-side plant notes) and Cruxland (Kalahari truffles and leather notes). You can find a host of South African gins at Capreo or at Süd Africa Genuss. We also had a very nice bottle of Koval, a Chicago gin that our friends brought over, with Cranberry notes (this one's technically not a "gin", but more like a liqueur because of the high sugar content and the lower alcohol ABV%). Once you have this selection set up, you'll really be able to appreciate the different flavour profiles of each gin, without being overwhelmed.
The perfect Garnishes to match Botanicals
You definitely need the right garnish pairings in order to bring out the best botanical notes in your different gins. You'll be amazed at how a simple slice of lemon or a sprig of rosemary can change the flavour profile. You'll need citrus (I had blood orange, lime and lemon), herbs (basil and rosemary), as well as cucumber slices (for Hendricks), blueberries or dried juniper berries. This is where you can have some fun and play around with what works and what doesn't with each gin.
Tonic Water and Glasses
These are two crucial elements to a good gin tasting. Fever Tree tonic water is the best I've been able to find commercially available in Germany. In South Africa we have a competitor to Fever Tree called Fitch&Leeds. They are even better, and available on Amazon, although a bit more expensive because of import costs. Another cheaper option is Lidl's tonic water available in larger quantities. With regard to glass-ware, I have a collection of small glasses about 75ml size, which is great for tasting gin neat, and they are big enough to fit in botanicals and a spritz of tonic. Once you figure out what gins you like best with what garnishes, then you should have larger stemless-wine-glass type glasses for pouring yourself a full glass of gin & tonic.
A Taste Sensory Sheet
In order to remember what gins you liked best and what garnishes fitted them best, I would suggest having a print-out sheet to write your notes on each gin. I created this simple one, with all the space for info that I wanted, which you can download here below if you like.
Last, but not least... SNACKS!
I must say that having food and/or snacks with your gin tasting at home is mandatory. You definitely cannot go through all that alcohol with no food in your stomach. I didn't take any pictures of our snacks unfortunately, but I got some hummus and different coloured potato chips from Lidl (the blue, red and normal colour potato chips), and some Rosemary kettle chips from Rewe. Plain chips are a great salty addition to any gin tasting, and aren't an overwhelming flavour. I also made some pulled pork wraps for the evening so that we would be sufficiently fed for the amount of gin that I knew we'd get through!
So, there you have it. the perfect guide to an at home gin tasting in Frankfurt. You've got the gin, the garnishes, the tonic and glasses, and to top it all off, some food and great company. You'll be all set for the coming Easter weekend if you'd like to do something a bit different and host a gin tasting with your family or friends.
Cheers for now, and have a great Easter weekend.
Jess & Tango