How to Taste Gin and Find the Style You Actually Like

Most people meet gin through a gin and tonic and never go much further. That is fine, but it means a lot of drinkers never work out what they actually enjoy in a gin, which makes buying a bottle a bit of a lottery. Tasting gin properly is not complicated, and once you have done it a couple of times you will start spotting the styles you like from the shelf alone.

Start with the juniper
Every gin has to taste of juniper. Under the rules that govern spirits in the UK and EU, a gin's flavour has to be predominantly juniper, and it has to be bottled at a minimum of 37.5% ABV. Juniper is the piney, faintly resinous note that some people describe as a Christmas tree in a glass, and it is the backbone of the whole spirit. In some gins the juniper is turned right up, and in others it sits quietly in the background while other flavours take the lead. Before you worry about anything else, see how loud the juniper is. That single question tells you a lot about the bottle in front of you.

The other botanicals
After juniper, most gins lean on coriander seed and angelica root. Coriander brings a soft citrus and a bit of warmth, while angelica root gives an earthy, almost woody note that holds everything together. On top of that base, distillers add whatever gives their gin its character. Citrus peel makes a gin bright and fresh. Cardamom, cinnamon and pepper push it towards spice. Rose, lavender and elderflower take it somewhere floral. There is no fixed number, but a classic London Dry often uses somewhere between six and ten botanicals, while some contemporary craft gins run to twenty, thirty or more.

How to actually taste it
Pour a small measure, around 25ml, into a glass that narrows at the top. A nosing glass works far better than a tumbler here because it gathers the aroma instead of letting it drift off. This is the same principle we cover in our guide to Why Glassware Changes How Whisky Tastes, and it applies just as much to gin. Our Mini Ember Nosing Glass does exactly that, and it suits gin just as well as whisky. Nose it gently first, then have a small sip neat and let it sit on your tongue for a second before you swallow. You are trying to notice the order things arrive in. Juniper usually leads, then the supporting botanicals, then whatever lingers at the end.

Add a splash of water or tonic
Neat gin at full strength can be sharp, so add a few drops of water and taste again. Water opens the spirit up and lets the softer botanicals come through, in the same way it does with whisky. If you want to see how a gin behaves in a drink, build a simple gin and tonic with plenty of ice and a neutral tonic, then taste that against the neat spirit. A citrus-forward gin will sing with a wedge of grapefruit, while a spicier gin often prefers a slice of orange.

Keep a few notes
You do not need fancy language. Words like piney, citrusy, floral, spicy or earthy are plenty. Jot down what you notice and which bottles you keep reaching for. Over a few tastings a pattern appears, and that pattern is your gin style. Once you know it, you can walk into any shop and make a good guess from the label and the botanical list.

Trying a few side by side
The fastest way to learn is to compare. Line up three gins that you think are different, a classic London Dry, a citrus-led one and something floral, and taste them one after another. The contrast makes each style obvious in a way that drinking them on separate evenings never will. If you want to take that comparison out of the house, to a friend's place or a weekend away, our Flight Flask Traveller Set lets you carry four different gins in labelled flasks without lugging full bottles around.

Gin rewards a bit of curiosity. Spend one evening tasting properly and you will get more out of every bottle you buy afterwards. Once you have found a style you like, our guide to Easy Gin Cocktails to Make at Home is the natural next stop.