The word gin comes from the Dutch word genever meaning juniper. Gin is neutral alcohol flavoured with juniper and other flavours known as botanicals. There are a number of ways to get the flavour into the gin. Some gins will use a combination of techniques in their production process.
The word gin comes from the Dutch word genever meaning juniper. Gin is neutral alcohol flavoured with juniper and other flavours known as botanicals. There are a number of ways to get the flavour into the gin. Some gins will use a combination of techniques in their production process.
Cold compounding: You can do this at home. Simply soak your botanicals in high strength alcohol. When you’re happy with the flavour, dilute and bottle. It sounds a bit basic but some very nice gins are made this way. You can also add flavours in the form of essentials oils, for example, citrus oil, to create your gin. The very cheapest gins will be created by adding artificial flavours
Distillation: This involves taking neutral alcohol, diluting it with purified water and putting it in a pot still. Add botanicals (flavourings, including juniper) then distill the spirit by heating it. The alcohol will become infused with the flavour of the botanicals, it rises to the top of the still, and then it is condensed. You can either put the botanicals directly into the alcohol or in a basket above, or a combination of both these techniques. Bombay Sapphire, for example, gets its delicate taste from just using the basket technique. The final spirit will then be diluted before bottling.
Vacuum distillation: This works by distilling the alcohol at low pressure meaning that evaporation takes place at a lower temperature. Think how water boils at a lower temperature at high altitude. This technique means that you aren’t cooking your liquid during the process so that you can preserve aromas that would be destroyed or altered during conventional distillation. Some quite fancy gins such as Sacred are made using this technique.