Why I Became a Gin Fanatic: A (Mostly True) Tale

It all started with a glass. Not just any glass, a perfectly chilled coupe filled with a mystical elixir that smelled like a walk through an enchanted forest and tasted like history itself. That was the moment I knew: I wasn’t just drinking gin. I was having a revelation.

But let’s rewind a bit.

Like most people, my early encounters with gin were less than refined. I vaguely remember a college party where someone handed me a plastic cup with something that might have been gin and definitely tasted like pine-scented cleaning fluid. Needless to say, I swore off gin for a while.

That was until I decided to get back on the gin horse during a business trip to New York City and found myself face-to-face with a bartender wearing suspenders, surrounded by a backlit wall of spirits that looked straight out of an alchemist’s dream. When I hesitated at the bar, he sized me up faster than a New York minute.

"You look like a gin person."

I wanted to protest because what does a "gin person" even look like? But before I could respond, a glistening cocktail appeared before me. Juniper, citrus, a whisper of botanicals I couldn’t quite place. I took a sip. My eyebrows lifted. My taste buds threw a party.

That was the night I became a gin enthusiast.

From then on, I went down the juniper-lined rabbit hole and learned about London Dry, Old Tom, genever, and the botanical wizardry behind each bottle. I started ordering Negronis at dinner, searched the internet for undiscovered gins, pored over tasting notes and backgrounds on master distillers.

Friends started calling me for gin recommendations, assuming I had some kind of sacred gin wisdom passed down through generations (spoiler alert: I don’t, but I pretend that I do). Eventually, I realized I had to embrace my fate and share my enthusiasm with the world, so here we are.

Now, I celebrate gin for what it is: a spirit that’s as mysterious as it is versatile, equally at home in a fancy cocktail bar, a quiet evening by the fire, or a toast to an unexpected adventure.

So if you ever find yourself questioning whether to order that gin cocktail, consider this your sign. Your libation world may never be the same. 🍸

Cheers,

Jeff Critser, The Gin Gent