Welcome to the modern gin palace

Leah Hyslop heads to Notting Hill where ‘Mother’s Ruin’ has acquired a sophisticated taste that can include Earl Grey tea or asparagus, but definitely not sulphuric acid

Drinking gin used to be such a simple pastime. In Hogarth’s era, you simply chugged down whatever swill you could buy for a penny and tried not to drop your baby in the gutter as your eyes started to roll. Twenty years ago, if you asked for a gin and tonic in a pub, you’d be given a Beefeater or a Gordon’s and would probably have been considered a snob if you asked for lime rather than lemon. These days, Britain is awash with different gins, and they don’t even all have juniper as the dominant note. Whitley Neill, made with baobab fruit, is African-inspired, while Bloom, with its notes of honeysuckle and camomile, tastes like an English garden. Even Heston Blumenthal has got in on the action, with an Earl Grey and lemon offering. But what do you do if none of the gins on the market are your cup of juniper berries? The answer could be to make your own. Hidden away above the Portobello Star pub in Notting Hill, London, home of Portobello Road Gin, is a warrenlike series of rooms known as the Ginstitute. Here, burly northerner and resident gin connoisseur Jake Burger talks small groups of guests through “the long and frequently miserable history” of their favourite spirit before helping them create their very own bottle. So it is on a Thursday night that I find myself perched on a bar stool in a dimly-lit replica of a Victorian gin palace, complete with green-tiled walls, mahogany bar and beautifully engraved mirrored panels. Said to be the second-smallest museum in London, the room is filled with fascinating gin paraphernalia – from dusty bottles of forgotten brands to the business card of 19th-century mixologist Jerry Thomas – and is so atmospheric, it’s easy to imagine that I’ve stepped back in time to smoggy Victorian London. Jake is an entertaining host, whizzing my group through hundreds of years of the gin story at a rattling pace. We learn how the English love of juniperflavoured spirits was sparked in the 1580s, during the Dutch War of Independence, when English troops stationed in the Netherlands acquired “the Dutch’s habit of getting loaded on the local liquor before going into battle – the origin, some say, of the phrase Dutch courage”. He paints a horrific picture of the gin craze of the 1700s, which occurred after William III imposed high taxes on imports of foreign spirits like French brandy, and which he compares to a “modern day drugs epidemic”. Most fascinatingly, he talks us through the devious ways gin shop and pub owners stretched their gin further – adding everything from turpentine and cayenne pepper to sulphuric acid and a mild sedative called cocculus indicus, which created the effect of drunkenness when punters were sipping little more than spiced water. He even lets us try his version of what a 19th-century gin might have tasted of – a murky drink that tastes both sweeter and harsher than its modern counterpart. The group is led up a narrow staircase to the laboratory, where we are to be guided through the process of making our own batch. The walls are lined with glass dispensers, each one filled with a pre-distilled gin with a particular botanical flavour. There are plenty of labels you’d expect to see, like juniper and citrus, but there’s also an array of unexpected flavours worthy of Willy Wonka himself: Yorkshire Tea, wormwood, asparagus, heather blossom and even pine needles, which Jake created from a tree in his mother’s garden. In the background is a strange-looking copper object affectionately referred to as Copernicus II, which is in fact the smallest copper gin still in Shake, Rattle and Stir’s Gin Journey A tour of London’s best gin bars, plus a visit to aworking gin distillery. The evening includes five gin samples, cocktails, and transport between each bar. £50 per person, shakerattleandstir.co.uk Cambridge Gin Tailoring Tours Cambridge Gin offers one-on-one sessions with its master distiller to create your own unique gin. Youwill have an hour-and-a-half determining your flavour preferences, after which a bespoke bottle will be delivered to your home. Locations across Britain, £220 per person, cambridgedistillery.co.uk Sipsmith distillery tour Award-winning gin makers Sipsmith opened the first gin distillery in London for 200 years. Learn about the history of gin, the story behind the brand and taste the different bottles Sipsmith makes. £12 per person, sipsmith.com Gin festival Annual celebration held in mainly northern cities including Hull and Leeds. More than 50 gins fromthe UK and around theworld are represented, plus live music and masterclasses fromgin experts. £5 per person, ginfestival. co.uk Copper bottom: the still used at the Ginstitute London. This is where the gin for our experiments was created, and where the first bottles of Portobello Road were distilled (it’s now made at bigger premises in Clapham). Jake and the pub’s gin director, Tom Coates, explain that most gins feature “the big four botanicals” – juniper, coriander, orris root and angelica – and recommend that over half of our gin should be made up of these flavours. When sipping a gin, the “first wave” of flavour is usually juniper, then the “lively top notes” like citrus and coriander. After that, you notice the more ephemeral flavours – grasses, florals, teas – and finally, the insistent ones that linger, like spices. Our job is to choose between six and 12 botanicals that deliver a good flavour profile. Tanqueray apparently has only four, but this is unusual: some gins have as many as 25. Jars of spices, dried flowers and fruits are passed around to sniff and consider. We learn that orange peel has a slightly bitter taste, while orange blossom is more fragrant; that liquorice doesn’t taste as much like the childhood sweets as you’d expect (fennel is better for that strong, aniseedy flavour); and that spices affect the mouth differently. I particularly like mace, which Jake says hits the tip of the tongue, not the back of the throat, and is good for a “strong, fierce gin”. As we jot down our list of desired ingredients, Jake helps us decide the exact quantities of each to use. I want to make a strong, slightly spiced gin that works well in martinis, and decide on a mix of lemon peel, orange peel, earthytasting gentian, mace, cubeb pepper, and allspice. To balance out all the spice, I opt for a dash of smoky lapsang souchong tea too. He tries to ensure everyone who takes part leaves with a drinkable gin (the bar even keeps the recipe, in case you want to order another bottle) but admits not everyone follows his advice. One visitor decided to make a “curry gin”, loading every spice he could find into the bottle, while another refused to include any botanicals except floral ingredients like camomile and lavender. “It was horrible,” Jake says, shaking his head sadly. “And she didn’t like it either.” So what do I make of my finished gin? Like I wanted, it is sturdy and strong, but not quite as spicy or distinctive as I’d have liked (perhaps I should have gone for the asparagus…) There isn’t much chance, once your batch is concocted, to tweak the product – in an ideal world, you’d be able to test small samples before committing to the final recipe. Jake, however, seems pleased, declaring my spirit “an elegant gin, with a nice long finish”. In honour of an old name for gin he mentioned earlier, I christen it “The real knock-me down”. I’m pretty grateful, however, that if I do topple over after drinking it, I know for a fact it won’t be because there’s any sulphuric acid involved. The Ginstitute (portobellostarbar. co.uk) is held at the Portobello Star, London W1. £100 per person