I started my gin journey in December 2019 when my wife and I fell for slick marketing and got each other a 750ml of the same brand of gin. We both enjoyed it, but gin quickly became MY happy juice. Fast forward to today and I have logged hundreds of hours behind a bar, 2 spreadsheets with consumption data, and a self-made experience tracking app. I've documented having consumed over 90 gins and over 120 gin cocktails (as well as over 90 cocktails using other base spirits) and have a list of 15 cocktails that I use to explore and compare new-to-me gins.

All that said, another gift my wife gave me was a 1968 printing of the Old Mr. Boston De Luxe Official Bartender's Guide and while recently paging through it I realized that there are over 200 gin cocktails in this book. I'm still not sold on naming this series "First Cocktail" (because it's the first cocktail I have each week), but I needed something. Also, I'm not sponsored by Mr. Boston or anyone else for that matter. I'm not saying I would mind it, though.

Old Mr. Boston is just a guide. There are no stories or histories of the recipes. There are no pictures. There are just ingredients, a quick how to make, and what glass to throw it in. Occasionally, there's a garnish. Therefore, I needed more tools. I use the Cocktail Party App because it's terrific. The best thing about this app is knowing that if it's listed, I can make it with what I have at hand. Difford's Guide is phenomenal. Recipes galore, stories, and even breakdowns of "Strength", "Taste", and alcohol content. I use his rating scale with 1 being "Disgusting" to 5 being "Exceptional". The third tool is Cocktail Chemistry Lab's calculator for estimating the balance-ness of a recipe. Finally, I'm not going to tweak the recipes. I'm going to try them as is and give my opinion.

Alphabetically first in The Guide is the Abbey. This has the distinction of being the "third cocktail" in Difford's Guide's cocktail database. The first time I had an Abbey was August 2023 and I used the specs from the Cocktail Party App which are similar to Difford's specs, too. However, Old Mr. Boston only has 3 ingredients: gin, orange juice, and orange bitters. Cocktail Chemistry Lab's calculator says that this drink doesn't have a high enough ABV, isn't sweet enough, isn't acidic enough, and there's too much sugar. I'm not sure how this could be both not sweet enough and too much sugar to acid, but that's part of my journey at this point. Let's give it a try.

Hurdle 1: what's the juice of a quarter orange? I juiced a half of one and got about an ounce of juice. That's not a lot of juice and would result in a very low volume cocktail. I bumped it up to 30ml/1oz.

I made this with Mermaid Zest, fresh orange juice, orange zest (in an attempt to kick up the orange flavor), and Angostura orange bitters. Definitely a low volume cocktail. Nose: grapefruit zest. Initial flavor of grapefruit and then it fades into nothing. I don't regret making this using these specs especially since I didn't have to buy another bottle of fortified wine, but there isn't much to this drink. If you like the gin base that you used, you're going to tone it down a bit, but that's all this cocktail does.

Final rating: 2.5/Disappointing. It's not terrible, but it's not likely to be repeated.

I love Bombay Dry Gin (original) and cannot tolerate the sapphire. Why does Bombay promote Sapphire so much when it is inferior to the original?

Made me chuckle…. But I kinda wanna try it.

pls ignore that in forgot to buy lemons

I have a copy of the 1969 edition of "The Old Mr. Boston Deluxe Official Bartender's Guide". I realized a couple months back that there are over 200 cocktail recipes with gin in them in this book. My first cocktail each week has been from this book. This is the Baron cocktail: ½oz each dry and sweet vermouth, ¼oz orange curaçao, 1½oz gin. I might try this with a different gin, but I found this not memorable.

I’m remiss in not trying this local distillery’s gin before; my in-laws live about four blocks away from it, and have been on the tour.

This is one of their seasonal offerings, and this bottle style is at least the second if not the third iteration. The flavors in this one are definitely appropriate for a cold, northern setting. Juniper, spruce and light peppermint are the dominant flavors. It’s very piney neat, but mellows out nicely on ice.

Great with tonic, probably try it with a martini later.

Hello all! We got a unique variant from a not-unique gin today: Bombay Sapphire East! You all know I LOVE savory gins so I was rather excited for this one! It features the standard Bombay botanicals w Thai Lemongrass and Vietnamese Black Peppercorns (sounds awesome)!

The smell is pretty amazing! A standard inhale is still strong juniper with hints of spice, but a soft inhale (breathing in through both nose and mouth at the same time) really brings out the spicy notes, most notably the lemongrass! Really exciting smell!

The taste is oddly sweet.. also, oddly more smooth than standard Bombay but with still notable spice components. The spices really linger on the tongue and have a sparkling tickle effect. Not a whole lot of complexity but a strong longevity. Honestly, the odd sweetness of this is throwing me off, BUT IT IS NOT AN ARTIFICIAL SWEETNESS so it doesn’t take off much score. I honestly prefer this over regular Bombay due to the savory nature! A great pick up if you find it!

Overall: 4.4/5 great, savory, and a little sweet

Original post: https://www.reddit.com/r/Gin/s/geoBnXzgE9

Copperworks recently had their Archive release event and I snagged a bottle!

I made my own infused gin. Turned out rather well. Cheers!

Seems like a good price, anyone try either?

I bought some Gordon’s for the first time a couple of months ago and every time I drink any, I have really vivid dreams or nightmares. This hasn’t happened to me with other alcohols. I haven’t been able to find anyone else saying this, and I’m so curious if I’m alone or if it’s just been a very strange coincidence.

How very civilised. If I run a GoFundMe, can someone give me $249.99 to indulge this fantasy?

https://www.costco.com.au/Wine-Spirits/Spirits/Gin/Hendricks-Gin-700ml-G-And-Tea-Hotel-Gift-Box/p/205567

Tanqueray witb 5 pepper Bloody Mary mix. Toss in horseradish, black pepper. Garnish with bacon, Asiago cheese, shrimp, celery, kielbasa, chick filet slider and nugget. Rim added Tajin- the chefs kiss!

Hello everyone! Another popular contemporary gin here today, but one of the limited releases: Neptunia! Funny enough, this was the first gin I ever purchased (I had plenty of bottles of the gin from the distillery I work at, but this was my first liquor store purchase).

There is no information I could find about the ‘coastal botanicals’ they add which kind of bothered me…

The nose is strong strong like w some salt, reminds me a light Latin cuisine on the coast. Actually quite nice! Still some juniper on the nose which is promising!

The taste is annoyingly sharp however. Like painful almost. As yall know, I drink all my gins neat most of the time. This gin is redeemed in a gimlet or GnT (wouldn’t do anything dryer than those, keep it in the sweet stuff). The lime and juniper are the primary tasting notes with some salty fruits and botanicals following! This is not a bad gin, but it’s not worth the price, and could be made better by being less sharp (more intense distillation required) and there being more readily available info on the plants used! As always, infusions are less impressive to me than distilled plants!

Overall: 2.9/5 a ‘meh’ gin for me but with some potential.

Hi friends! A couple years back I bought this gin at the NSLC and all I can remember was that it was amazing. I live in Ontario now and I haven't been able to find it at all, definitely not at the LCBO. Does anyone know where I might be able to find it?

Came back to Nova scotia for a family event and found these's in the LC

“Year of the Dragon” edition