A date with Sarah-Kate; Kate’s home truths

Hiccup! Sarah-Kate learns to gin and bear it

Usually I make a New Year’s resolution to stop drinking. It’s not that I’m a year-round problem tippler – it just seems like a natural thing to promise after the excesses of the holiday season. But it never lasts.

So this year, I’m resolving to drink more and see how that pans out. What’s more, I’m going to specifically drink more gin because gin is having a renaissance and I’m not sure I’ve ever been involved in one of those before.

In the olden days, the juniper-flavoured spirit was simply called Gordon’s and lived in my parents’ liquor cabinet where it went largely ignored, by me anyway.

But in the olden, olden days, i.e. the 18th century, London – arguably the home of gin – was in the grip of such a gin craze that, at its peak, every person in the city downed a litre of the stuff each week ... even children! Back then, it used to be sweet to mask the questionable taste of the poor quality. Eventually beer, whisky and wine took over, and gin was left in the laundry cupboard to be used for soaking out difficult stains and cleaning jewellery.

To be honest, until pretty recently, I thought even modern gin had a pretty questionable taste. It’s kind of bitter, right? And full of botanicals, which turn out to be things other than junipers, like cucumber and lavender and pea flowers.

Yep, gin and tonics have long left me cold – until I discovered in something of a eureka moment that it’s not the gin that I find unpalatable, it’s the old faithful tonic that has accompanied it for so many years.

I know quinine stops you from getting malaria, but we don’t have much malaria where I live. And there’s just something a little too cloying and sodium-y about that old faithful that I can’t stomach.

Indeed, had there not been an explosion in the “boutique” tonic market, gin might have been lost to me forever. But my new favourite is elderflowerflavoured with almost zero sodium, a lower calorie count and a gentle tang. Add that to a “craft” gin and kapow – all of a sudden, those taste buds are singing all the right tunes.

And how many craft gins are there in New Zealand, thanks to the renaissance? A lot. The small town of Martinborough has two of them, plus two gin clubs. You know, like book clubs but without having to pretend any of you have read the book. There’s also a dedicated gin bar at the Martinborough Hotel. And when I say small, this town has a population of 1640. That’s one gin distillery for every 820 people.

Personally, I like that idea, but if the whole country is similarly blessed, then we’ll be up to a litre a week like those boozy Londoners before you can hiccup.

No, my New Year’s resolution does not extend that far. Gin and tonics are still a cocktail, and I have very strict rules regarding cocktails – one is good, two is better, three and you wake up in a workhouse in Bethnal Green circa 1743.