Of all the liquors I work with behind the bar, gin gets the most pushback. Every shift, there’s someone who wrinkles their nose and asks for vodka instead of gin in a cocktail. A snarky corner of my soul wants to ask if they’d prefer a vodka infused with botanicals instead… but that’s just petty of me. I am convinced that an entire generation of underage drinkers scarred their souls on a bottle of Gordon’s Gin, and somehow that translated into an evisceral hatred of juniper berries. 

So, one thing at a time here. A decent gin - not bottom shelf garbage, not something fancy, just plain old Tanqueray or Bombay Sapphire - makes a great martini. It’s an even better martini with a healthy swig of dry vermouth. Dry vermouth makes gin better. There is nothing quite so refreshing as a mediocre martini sipped at an airport bar during a long layover. Something sharp, crisp, and boozy when the world wants to drag you down into despair is a treasure. It’s a grown-up drink for a profoundly juvenile world. 

My favorite martini is something I call the “Civilized Martini.” I wrote this cocktail when I got sick of pouring 5 ounces of Tito’s into a glass and calling it a “martini”. My Civilized Martini uses two different gins, rosemary oil, lemon oil, smoked sea salt, dry vermouth, orange bitters, and some vodka to give all that some space to breathe in the glass. It’s “civilized” in the same way that James Bond is civilized - fashionable, assertive, and ruthless. All the flavors of a martini - citrus, earthiness, crispness - are amplified ruthlessly in this glass. It’s a tour de force that’s won over a lot of martini lovers. 

Second, great gin tastes nothing like the Gordon’s my customers got sick on years ago. Gin has evolved dramatically. I’ve tasted lemon-infused gins that tasted like a crisp ray of sunshine beaming down on an Italian cafe. There are cucumber and rose gins that taste like an English countryside picnic. I’ve sampled gins that are so mind-bogglingly complex that I couldn’t possibly describe them, except to say that they’re yummy. In all of them, the juniper is barely present - not so much a flavor as an herbaceous clearing of the throat, a notice that you should pay attention before subjecting you to a flavor bomb. 

Gin shows up in a lot of mixologists’ cocktails. Asking for a gin-centric drink like the Negroni with a vodka swap is like asking for the Muzak version of Prince’s “Purple Rain”. The notes might be in place, but the soul has been ripped out. My response to requests like this has become simple, but focused: “Trust me”. I repeat it, as intensely as possible, until the guest relents and lets me make the cocktail as it was written. They’re never disappointed. Gin, in harmony with ingredients that support it or contrast it, is really good. Trust your bartender. Drink gin. It really is good, if you treat it right.