Gin cocktail recipes

Recipes for top cocktails with gin, from the Dry Martini and Negroni to the classic Gin & Tonic.

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Gin is the most important spirit in your drinks cabinet. The majority of cocktails in classic works like Harry Craddocks’s The Savoy Cocktail Book (1930) use gin. For many the greatest cocktail of them all is the Dry Martini, and it’s made with gin. But which one?

If you’ve only got space for one bottle, make it a London Dry Gin like Beefeater or Tanqueray. These are made by distilling natural botanicals including juniper in neutral alcohol with nothing apart from water added post-distillation. A London Dry will give you the classic juniper-led flavour that you need to make all your favourite gin cocktails.

From there you might want to go with the sweeter flavour of an Old Tom, which harks back to how gin would have tasted in the early 19th century. Other alternatives include fruit-flavoured gins like orange or strawberry which are great for long drinks or oak-aged gins which bring an interesting twist to alcohol-forward drinks like the Dry Martini.

Dry Martini

The king of cocktails! The important thing to remember with a Dry Martini is that you can have it as wet as you like. Half and half gin and vermouth - no problem! Just make sure you use good quality gin and vermouth with lots of very cold ice, and you can’t go wrong. And garnish however you want too. Lemon twist and olive? Why not, it’s your Martini.

Ingredients:

60ml London Dry Gin

10ml Dry Vermouth

Method:

Fill your mixing jug or shaker with lots of ice, pour in the chilled gin and vermouth, and stir vigorously for 30 seconds. Strain into a chilled Nick & Nora glass and serve with a twist of lemon and, what the hell, two almond-stuffed olives on a cocktail stick too.

Negroni

While an unusual gin can be great in a Martini or a G&T, do be careful experimenting with a Negroni as unusual lead botanical plus Campari and vermouth can lead to strange flavours. That’s not to say don’t experiment, we love a Jaffa Cake Gin Negroni, just have a think first.

Ingredients:

25ml London Dry Gin

25ml Italian Vermouth

25ml Campari

Method:

Fill a chilled rocks glass with large ice cubes, add the ingredients, give it a good stir and then express a piece of orange peel over the top and drop it in.

Bramble

The Bramble is a true modern classic invented by the late great Dick Bradsell when he was working at a bar in Soho called Fred’s Club. It’s an amazingly adaptable cocktail as from the base of gin and lemon juice you can experiment with all kinds of liqueurs such a Chambord, creme de cassis or even Ribena. Or play around with fruit gins.

Ingredients:

50ml London Dry Gin

25ml Lemon juice

10ml Sugar syrup

10ml Crème de mure

Method:

Shake the gin, lemon juice and sugar syrup with ice in a shaker, double-strain into a tumbler filled with crushed ice. Drizzle crème de mure on the top and garnish with a lemon slice and a bramble.

Gin & Tonic

Surely you don’t need a recipe for a simple G&T? Well, we’ve had a fair few bad ones in our time so we’re going to provide one anyway. The key things are that everything, gin, ice and tonic, should be as cold as possible, and the tonic should be fresh and fizzy. Oh and make sure your citrus fruit is freshly cut.

Ingredients:

60ml Your Favourite Gin

Tonic water

Method:

Chill everything, except the garnish. Fill a tumbler with ice, add the gin and stir, top up with tonic, stir again and garnish with a piece of lemon or orange (and rosemary if you like).

Tom Collins

The Tom Collins is descended from the John Collins, a drink invented by the head waiter at Limmer’s Hotel in London in the early 19th century.The original would probably have used a sweeter gin than a London Dry so this is a great drink in which to use an Old Tom or a fruit-flavoured gin. If so, cut back on the sugar syrup.

Ingredients:

50ml Old Tom Gin

1.5 Teaspoons lemon juice

1 Teaspoon sugar syrup

Soda water

Method:

Add all the ingredients except soda water to an ice filled Highball glass. Stir well, top up with fizzy water, stir gently again and garnish with a lemon wheel.

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