HOW WILL WE DRINK IN 2022?
Studying the gin crystal ball
As gin continues to take over the world, the endless flow of new US gins is overwhelming, even for an aficionado. Beyond the massive, Covid-motivated increases in home bartending, bottled cocktails and home delivery apps like Minibar and Drizly (the latter’s sales increased 350 per cent year-over-year in 2020), more under-theradar trends are emerging. We’ll explore a few of them here.
SPIRITS TRENDS Amid the campy silliness of like Indoggo Gin from Snoop Dogg, some ideas that appear ill-advised on the surface can surprise. Case in point: Bimini Coconut Gin from Round Turn Distilling in Biddeford, Maine. It tastes like a quality coconut fat-washed spirit made by a top bartender, adding silky mouthfeel and subtle coconut to cocktails rather than being a gimmicky, coconut-flavoured gin.
releases
Then, there are the spirits crafted for particular mixers: following 1220 Artisan Spirits’ Origin Gin for gin and tonics, in 2021, Philadelphia Distilling released Bluecoat Gin for Seltzer, crisply refreshing with organic yuzu and black lime.
ESTATE-ONLY AND SEASONAL GINS Estate and seasonal gins are far from a new concept, but the trend continues. Small-batch producer Bently Heritage Estate in near Lake Tahoe in Nevada released a distillery-only Alpine Gin in addition to its Juniper Grove and Atrium Gins. Triple-distilled from grain grown on the estate’s ranch, it contains 11 botanicals, including foraged pinion cones.
Roots of Ruin Harvest Seasonal Gin is the fifth seasonal gin from Kentucky distiller Castle & Key, and is infused with pine, berries, bay leaf and fennel. Meanwhile, in Sonoma County town Sebastopol, Timo and Ashby Marshall’s grain-to-glass Spirit Works Distillery released Batch 2 of its aged Old Tom Gin, adding liquorice, more orris root and honey to the cardamom, lemon and orange zest-forward recipe. These stand-out gins represent increasing quality on a hyper-local scale.
COCKTAIL TRENDS
Tales of the Cocktail’s American Bartender of the Year for 2020, Kevin Diedrich (who runs 2020’s Best American Cocktail Bar, PCH in San Francisco), opened his second bar in the city, Kona’s Street Market, in early 2021. In the spirit of PCH’s iconic (and much-copied) Leeward Negroni, lush with pandan leaf in a nod to Diedrich’s Filipino heritage, Kona’s Boracay Old Fashioned is a game-changing spirituous gin drink. It’s silky with pandan and coconut water, and aromatic with makrut lime and bay leaf. Diedrich’s gin drinks (and beyond) remain examples of boundary-pushing cocktails with a classic, balanced ethos.
Meanwhile, it’s increasingly easier to find expertly made, creative variations on classic cocktails in restaurants and bars around US suburbs and small towns – think the Annette Martini at celebrated restaurant Annette in Aurora, Colorado, in the suburbs of Denver. Showcasing Denver’s pioneering Leopold Brothers’ navy-strength gin along with Vermut Miró, pear eau de vie, Salers Aperitif and olive, it’s a classy example of how suburbs of small to mid-sized US cities now hide havens for cocktail and gin lovers.
... the suburbs of mid-sized and smaller US cities now hide havens for cocktail and gin lovers
BAR TRENDS
While bars like San Francisco’s Whitechapel have stocked hundreds of gins for years, new gin-centric bars continue to pop up nationally, such as the gorgeous, hidden The Wells in Washington, DC (with more than 40 gins and counting since opening in fall 2021); Botánico, the first gin bar in Miami; and Durham Distillery’s new Corpse Reviver Bar and Lounge in North Carolina.
Some pandemic openings continue to thrive, including Baltimore’s Dutch Courage, with its genever-inspired name, retro-chic space inside an old house, gin-centric menu, and 18-page spirits list with tasting notes for every entry. The cocktail menu is also extensive, featuring all spirits, and is heavy on gin in sections like ‘Courageous Cocktails’ and drinks such as the Japanese Breakfast: Nikka gin, Chartreuse, yuzu marmalade, lime, Szechuan tincture, egg white and dehydrated lime.