Tom Gabb: Gin as a new trend

It may be completely idle for me to say this to those who have set foot in a bar in the last year, but gin is a very trendy beverage right now. We have just emerged out of Sussex Gin Week here so I want to talk about the meteoric rise of the quintessentially British, juniper driven phenomenon, that is gin.

Although it’s deeply entrenched in our culture thanks to our famous penchant for the drink, it’s a Dutch spirit (and spawned the phrase Dutch courage). It was only later that it was brought to England and started a full-on furore amongst us Brits. We desired it to such an extent that we even stuck it in our quinine based malaria medications or “tonics” and created one of the most quaffable beverages ever. Move forward to today and gin and tonics are one of the best-selling drinks on the market.

Primarily this is because the chemical structures of both ingredients are of a similar molecular shape and attract each other, shielding the bitter taste of each liquid, but I don’t want to bore you with gin facts and science. What I would like to talk about is the fact that once again gin has the British public in a furore, and why that might be.

For a start, I think it is most important to look at the trend that preceded it, which was vodka. It seemed for a while that there was a new vodka every day from either a special place or associated with a new celebrity, such as P Diddy (Cîroc), Dan Aykroyd (Crystal Head) or Donald Trump (imaginatively…Trump Vodka… sigh). It all got a bit boring.

In steps gin, with a deep array of subtle flavours that are far more interesting than its predecessor’s blunt instrument flavour variations. I want to make it clear that I am not saying vodka is bad, but I am saying it tastes simple and that is why gin is getting ahead. As well as this, it is sensible to realise that the generation of people with the spending money in this industry probably had a youth of necking down the simple stuff and now their palates have changed, they probably like olives too.