From the bartender’s corner – Gin #3: Dutch Courage
There is a very interesting story behind the name. First of all “Dutch courage” is an English phrase which means “strength or confidence gained from drinking alcohol”. The story goes that the during the Thirty Years War (early half of the seventeenth century) – one of the most devastating wars in Europe – the English soldiers were impressed by the bravery-inducing effects (both by warming the bodies in cold weather and numbing the nerves) of genever (predecessor of gin) on Dutch soldiers and gave the drink the name “Dutch Courage”.
Dutch Courage Gin (which is not genever or Old Tom style but the traditional London dry style) was started by Fred Van Zuidam more than 40 years back near Baarle-Hertog which is on the south side of Netherlands – very close to the border of Belgium. In fact, very close to the Flanders area which is acknowledged to be the birthplace of gin.
One of the coolest facts about Zuidam’s distillery is that his is the only distillery in the world that still uses windmills to mill the grains!! The grain of choice is barley. Unlike most London Dry gins – however, like many other gins from the Netherlands, this gin too is barrel aged. And because of that, to me at least, it was closer to an Old Tom than a modern gin.
The botanicals include the staple components – juniper (interestingly, from Italy), coriander and angelica. On top of that, it has orange, lemon, licorice root, cardamom pods, vanilla and iris root. The nose is anything but simple – due to the barrel aging and the botanicals and the flavor is distinctly citrusy. The juniper comes thru much later. The finish is a little bittersweet.
I tried on the rocks and with Indian Tonic water. The latter was more enjoyable.
From the bartender’s corner – Malfy Gin and Ginger
This would be the end of my experimentation with the Malfy Gin from Italy. I was wondering how ginger would go with the lemon in the gin. While researching if anybody had tried this before, I came across an interesting blog by a husband (Andrew Purcell) and wife team (Carrie Purcell) from New York City – “Pictures and Pancakes”. (http://picturesandpancakes.blogspot.com/). He is the photographer and she is the food stylist. This gin and ginger cocktail here is adapted from their creation.
2 oz of Malfy, 1 oz of ginger liqueur and topped up with ginger ale.
Both Sharmila and I really liked how it came thru.
From the bartenders corner – Malfy Martini
From the bartender’s corner – French 75 with Malfy Gin
This drink usually has London Dry gin, sugar, lemon juice and champagne. However since Malfy Gin is overwhelming with lemon nose and flavor, I skipped the lemon juice. The make it an all Italian affair, I even went with a champagne from Italy (Martini and Rossi). Here is the irony though – the name of the drink is French 75!!! To do some justice to the “French” part of the name, I served it in a Dom Perignon flute.
The nose id predominantly lemon (the lemon peel garnish accentuates that). The juniper and botanicals come thru very late and the flavor of lemon is quite subdued by the champagne and the syrup. Very enjoyable drink.
This will surely surprise you!
While studying up about gin, I started researching the consumption patterns in the world. The first thing I wanted to know is which is the country that consumes the most gin in a year per capita (per person). The research led me to a country that I would not have guessed even if my life depended on it. That made me curious about other alcohols and then subsequently, non-alcoholic drinks. The answers will blow your mind. Try this for yourself. (The year signifies which year research data I could get to in the internet).
First, without Googling, take a shot. And then see how close were you. For the answers, just click the following link that will take you to the answers. http://www.rajibroy.com/?p=12555. Also, if you find statistics from later years, please send them my way…
Which country drinks annually, on a per person basis, the following:
a. Gin (2012)
b. Beer (2014)
c. Rum (2012)
d. Whiskey (2012)
e. Vodka (2012)
f. Wine (2015)
g. Tequila (2012)
h. Milk (2014)
i. Tea (2014)
j. Coffee (2014)
From the bartender’s corner – Malfy Anise
Was thinking of what might be a good cocktail to make with the Malfy gin. Went with a variation of gin anise drink. 2 and a half ounce of Malfy with half an ounce of sweet vermouth and half an ounce of anisette liqueur. Shaken with crushed ice and then poured in a cocktail glass.
The aniseed smell dueled mightily with the lemon. For the initial few sips, the aniseed prevailed and after rolling it in the mouth a couple of times, the others – including the lemon and orange peels started to make their presence felt.
The finish was long and predictably with both the aniseed and lemon making a pronounced effect.
Next time, I might try with a tad less aniseed and see how the lemon performs if it is a given a little more chance.
From the bartender’s corner – Gin #2: Malfy Gin
This is an interesting gin in the sense it is very strong in lemon content. I believe these category of gins are called “citrus forward” gins. This is an Italian gin made near the Turin area. The area is famous for its beaches (Amalfi beach is next door) on the Mediterranean Sea, some of the best quality lemons (that goes to make the famous Italian limoncello) and a long history of distilleries (good output of wheat in the vicinity).
About a quarter century back, Veragnano and his family bought out a distillery (from Seagram) that had existed from the turn of the twentieth century and started focusing on small batch gins. They still run the place themselves.
This gin has an interesting design for the bottle. The family claims that the blue color symbolizes the beautiful Mediterranean Sea and the yellow color is for the zesty lemons nearby. The glass is of course, the famous Italian glass and I understand the cork is made from local oak.
While a lot is made of the Amalfi area lemons – and they do use the peels of local lemons, in reality it is only about one in five lemons that are local. The rest are brought from Sicily. Other than the lemons, the botanicals added includes local juniper, coriander, licorice, grapefruit peels and orange peels.
The nose clearly hits you with strong lemon aroma and so does the palate. But soon, you can get the undertones of the grapefruit and orange peels. The finish is strong and towards the end you start to realize the juniper.
While this can be taken on the rocks or neat, I would suggest at least some tonic water or sweet vermouth. Certainly would be great for cocktails.
Made a map of all the distillery locations from where I have collected Gin bottles for my bar
A slice of gin history…
A funny excerpt from Lesley Jacobs Solomonson’s book on the history and evolution of gin….
“The British distilleries were even harder hit (than American counterparts) during the Second World War. Like the American operations, they were commandeered by the military to make industrial alcohol. The resulting products were drolly referred to as ‘Cocktails for Hitler’. Germany did not appreciate the humour. They bombed Goswell Road on 11 May 1941, crippling Gordon’s entire operation”