Best British gins to savour and show off, taste tested

Of the nation’s many stereotypical beverages, gin undoubtedly counts quite highly.

Rubbing shoulders with the likes of breakfast tea and brown ale, gin has captivated British hearts, minds and spirits (ahem) since the royal introduction of jenever to the isles in the 1600s. 

After a tumultuous time in the intervening years, we’re lucky today to have a thriving national gin-o-sphere, bolstered by both bastions of tradition and contemporary distillatory upstarts. But how did we get here?

Gin’s beginnings lie with its mainland European ancestor, jenever – a herby, malty, occasionally spicy and often fruity liquor that also very much deserves your time.

Late-17th-century monarch William of Orange was responsible for the explosion of popularity jenever enjoyed in the UK; as independent distilleries were subsequently given more freedom and incentive to start up (in part, to reduce the nation’s reliance on imports), a new variation of Holland’s spirit drink was born.

Gin has changed a bit since those heady early days, with 18th century gins being a little clumsier and more noxious than today’s refined botanical spirits. Today, there are a few different types of gin, but two which you’ll be somewhat familiar with: London Dry, and Old Tom.

London Dry is the most common form of gin today, and the gin you’re thinking of when you think about gin. The style was a 19th-century invention, designed as a marker of quality to distinguish carefully- and masterfully made gins from their cheaper, sometimes poisonous low-quality contemporaries. It’s a bright, dry bouquet of flavours and aromas, defined of course, by the prominence of juniper berries. 

 Old Tom was the name given to England’s first gin-distilling attempts and has made a more refined return in recent decades, thanks to renewed interest in pre-20th-century cocktails. Old Tom is typically a sweeter gin, and sometimes more citrus-forward too.

We’re lucky to be so spoiled for choice on the gin front today, as new distillers continue to pop up in the most unexpected places – and well-heeled distillers continue to make absurdly well-thought-out botanical concoctions.

The field is a crowded one, so let us pick out a small handful of the best for you.