Gin Explained: Styles, Botanicals, and the G&T Origin Story
CrushBrew Editorial · Spirits · 7 min read
There’s a fun argument to make that gin is just the world’s first flavored vodka. Take a neutral grain spirit, redistill it with botanicals, bottle it. Sound familiar? The structure is identical. The difference — and it’s a significant one — is that gin has been doing this since the 17th century, has developed an entire taxonomy of styles in the process, and has one non-negotiable rule that vodka never had to follow: the botanicals must produce a juniper-forward flavor, or it isn’t gin. That one rule, and three centuries of tradition built around it, is what separates gin from a bottle of cucumber-infused vodka. Here’s what else you need to know.
In This Article
What Is Gin and How Is It Made?
At its most reductive, gin is a neutral grain spirit that has been redistilled with botanicals — plants, roots, peels, seeds, and berries — to produce a flavored spirit with juniper as the dominant note. The neutral spirit itself is essentially vodka: distilled from grain (usually wheat or barley) to a very high ABV, stripped of nearly all flavor, and used as a blank canvas. What happens next is where gin diverges from vodka entirely.
Definition
Gin
A spirit produced by redistilling a neutral grain spirit with botanicals — plants, herbs, spices, roots, and fruit peels — in which juniper berries must be the predominant flavor. In the US, gin must be bottled at a minimum of 40% ABV. In the EU, gin must be at least 37.5% ABV. The specific legal requirements vary by style: London Dry gin has the strictest rules (all botanicals added during distillation, no sweeteners or artificial flavors added after, juniper must dominate), while broader categories of “gin” allow more flexibility in production method. What all gins share is the legal and sensory requirement that juniper — the resinous, piney, faintly citrusy berry of the Juniperus communis plant — be present and perceptible as the primary flavor driver.
Distillers typically use one of three methods to introduce botanical flavor. In steeping (or maceration), botanicals are soaked directly in the neutral spirit for anywhere from a few hours to 48 hours before distillation, allowing the essential oils to infuse into the liquid. In vapor infusion, botanicals are placed in a suspended basket inside the still, and the alcohol vapor passes through them during distillation, picking up their aromatic compounds without the more aggressive extraction of steeping. Many distillers combine both methods for different botanicals — steeping those they want to extract more heavily, vapor-infusing those they want to treat more gently.
After distillation, the spirit comes off the still at high strength and is diluted with water to bottling strength. For London Dry gins, nothing else may be added at this point. For other styles, some additional flavoring or sweetening is permitted. The distiller’s most critical decision comes during the distillation run itself: the cut — determining when the desirable “heart” of the distillate begins and ends, discarding the harsh “heads” and heavy “tails” on either side. Those decisions define the character of the finished gin as much as the botanical recipe does.
What Are Botanicals and Why Do They Matter?
Botanicals are the plants, roots, seeds, peels, and spices that give gin its flavor. Juniper berries are the one non-negotiable — everything else is the distiller’s creative and technical decision. The botanical recipe is each distillery’s equivalent of a wine producer’s vineyard blend: a proprietary combination that defines their house style and distinguishes their gin from every other gin on the shelf.
Beyond the classic palette, modern distillers have introduced an enormous range of additional botanicals — cucumber, rose petal, lavender, cardamom, ginger, tea, pine needles, sea kelp, local herbs — particularly in the contemporary and New Western styles that have driven gin’s most dramatic growth over the past two decades. The botanical combination is where distiller personality most directly expresses itself in the finished spirit.
What Are the Major Gin Styles?
Understanding gin’s style families is the single most useful piece of knowledge for navigating the category — both at a bottle shop and when building cocktails. The four most important are:
London Dry
The style most people mean when they say “gin.” London Dry is a strictly regulated production method, not a geographic designation — a London Dry can be made anywhere in the world. The rules are precise: all botanicals must be added during distillation (none after the fact), no artificial flavors, no added sweeteners, and the resulting spirit must be juniper-forward with no single added botanical overpowering the overall balance. The result is a clean, dry, assertive gin where the botanical complexity is fully transparent — nowhere to hide. London Dry is the backbone of classic cocktails: the Negroni, the Martini, the Tom Collins, the Gimlet all depend on the structural clarity it provides. Core examples: Tanqueray, Beefeater, Sipsmith, Bombay Sapphire.
Old Tom
The original English gin style, predating London Dry by roughly two centuries. Old Tom was the standard in 18th and 19th century England before falling out of favor as production methods improved and consumer taste shifted toward drier spirits. It’s slightly sweeter than London Dry — either from added sugar or from heavy use of naturally sweet botanicals like liquorice — and carries a richer, rounder texture. The craft cocktail movement revived Old Tom because most pre-Prohibition cocktail recipes were written when Old Tom was the available standard. The Martinez, the Tom Collins, and the Ramos Gin Fizz were all formulated for an Old Tom world. Core examples: Hayman’s Old Tom, Ransom Old Tom.
Plymouth
Geographically protected to Plymouth, England, where a single distillery — Plymouth Gin — produces it. Softer and earthier than London Dry, with a higher proportion of root botanicals (orris, angelica) producing a rounder, more rounded mouthfeel and less aggressive juniper character. Plymouth was historically the gin of the British Royal Navy and is one of the earliest Protected Geographical Indication spirits. A gentler entry point than London Dry for drinkers who find classic gin too assertive.
Contemporary / New Western
The most rapidly growing style category, driven largely by the craft distilling movement in the US, UK, and globally. Contemporary gins play by looser rules — juniper must be present, but it doesn’t have to dominate. Other botanicals can compete with or even exceed juniper in the flavor profile, allowing distillers to create gins that are floral, fruity, herbal, savory, or exotic in ways that classic styles don’t permit. Hendrick’s (cucumber and rose), Aviation (floral and spice-forward), and The Botanist (22 foraged Islay botanicals) are landmark examples. This is the style that has converted many self-described gin skeptics. Core examples: Hendrick’s, Aviation, The Botanist, Monkey 47.
Where Did Gin Come From?
Gin’s origins are Dutch, not British. The precursor spirit, called genever (from the Dutch word for juniper), was being produced in Holland and Belgium by the early 17th century — a malt-wine-based spirit flavored with juniper, heavier and more grain-forward than modern gin, closer in character to a botanical whisky than to what we think of as gin today. British soldiers encountered genever during the Thirty Years War and brought it home, where it was anglicized as “geneva” and then shortened to “gin.”
The 18th century saw gin become simultaneously one of England’s most consumed beverages and one of its most serious social crises. The Gin Craze — roughly 1720 to 1751 — produced a period of genuinely alarming mass consumption among the urban poor, driven by cheap unregulated production and the social disruptions of industrialization. William Hogarth’s famous engraving “Gin Lane” (1751) is the era’s most vivid document. A series of Gin Acts progressively regulated production and distribution, eventually forcing gin off the streets and into regulated distilleries, which is where the quality standards that produced London Dry and Plymouth were developed and refined.
How Did the Gin and Tonic Become a Cocktail?
The gin and tonic began as a medical intervention, not a drink order. Quinine, extracted from the bark of the South American cinchona tree by the indigenous Quechua peoples and adopted by Jesuit missionaries in Peru in the early 1600s, became the standard European treatment for malaria by the mid-17th century. It was the dominant anti-malarial medicine for nearly three centuries, until more effective and better-tolerated drugs were developed in the early 1940s.
Quinine dissolved in water produced early tonic water — effective medicine, bitterly unpleasant to drink. British soldiers and colonial officers stationed in malaria-endemic tropical postings throughout India and Africa received daily quinine rations and found them difficult to consume. The practical solution was to mix the quinine tonic with the gin ration already distributed to British troops, along with sugar and fresh lime juice to further mask the bitterness. The gin and tonic was, in its original form, a malaria prophylactic that happened to taste good enough to survive the elimination of its medical rationale.
Historical Note
Modern Tonic Water and Quinine
Modern commercial tonic water contains a small amount of quinine — enough to produce the distinctive bitter flavor and the fluorescent glow under UV light that has become a visual signature of the gin and tonic — but far below the therapeutic concentrations used as malaria treatment. A 2004 study confirmed that the quinine content in tonic water used in a standard gin and tonic contains insufficient quinine to effectively treat or prevent malaria. The gin and tonic is not a malaria cure. It is, however, an excellent cocktail, which turns out to have been the more durable legacy.
Which Gin Bottles Should You Know?
A working gin education can be built around five bottles that collectively span the major style families and flavor profiles of the category.
Frequently Asked Questions About Gin
🌿 Gin Styles — Quick Reference
The four major gin style families compared
| Style | Character | Best For | Examples |
|---|---|---|---|
| London Dry | Dry, juniper-forward, clean, assertive | Classic cocktails — Negroni, Martini, G&T | Tanqueray, Beefeater, Sipsmith |
| Old Tom | Slightly sweet, rounded, richer texture | Pre-Prohibition cocktails — Tom Collins, Martinez | Hayman’s Old Tom, Ransom |
| Plymouth | Softer, earthier, root-botanical forward | Gimlet, Plymouth Martini, aperitif sipping | Plymouth Gin (sole producer) |
| Contemporary / New Western | Floral, fruity, or herbal; juniper present but not dominant | Modern spritzes, highballs, flavored tonic serves | Hendrick’s, Aviation, The Botanist, Monkey 47 |
| Genever (precursor) | Malty, grain-forward, botanical whisky character | Gin Old Fashioned, sipping, Dutch cocktail tradition | Bols Genever, Rutte |
