Gin is one of the most misunderstood spirits on the shelf. A lot of people write it off after one bad experience with something sharp and medicinal, not realising that the gin category is genuinely enormous. The question of what gin is made from turns out to be far more interesting than you’d expect, and understanding it changes the way you taste every glass.
In the middle of a New Zealand winter, gin has a lot going for it. It works beautifully warm in a hot toddy-style serve, holds its own in a slow evening cocktail, and pairs surprisingly well with rich, cold-weather food. Once you understand what’s actually in the bottle, you start making much better choices about what to buy and how to enjoy it.
What Exactly Is Gin?
Gin is a distilled spirit that must, by definition, be flavoured with juniper berries. Juniper is a small, dark berry with a piney, slightly resinous taste. It’s non-negotiable. Without juniper at the forefront, a spirit legally cannot be called gin. Everything else, every other flavour you taste, comes from additional botanicals added during production. Botanicals are natural plant ingredients: roots, bark, seeds, citrus peel, flowers, herbs, and spices. Gin is essentially a spirit built on a botanical recipe.
Where Does Gin Come From?
The story starts in the Netherlands in the 1600s, where a juniper-flavoured spirit called genever was widely drunk. British soldiers encountered it during the Thirty Years’ War, liked it, and brought the idea home. England quickly developed its own version, and by the 18th century gin was being produced in huge quantities, often very badly. The infamous “Gin Craze” in London saw cheap, rough spirit flood the streets.
Things improved considerably when proper distillation techniques and regulation caught up. London became the natural home of the refined style we now call London Dry. But gin has spread everywhere since. Scotland, Spain, Japan, and increasingly New Zealand all have strong craft gin producers. New Zealand distillers have taken to the category enthusiastically, often using native botanicals like kawakawa, horopito, and manuka to create genuinely distinctive spirits.
How Is Gin Made?
It starts with a neutral base spirit, usually made from grain, though some producers use grape or potato. Think of this base like a blank canvas. It has very little flavour of its own. The job of the distiller is to build flavour on top of it using botanicals.
The most common method is to put the neutral spirit and the botanicals together in a still, which is a large copper vessel used to heat and concentrate alcohol. As the liquid heats, alcohol vapour rises through the botanicals, picking up their flavours and aromas. That vapour is then cooled back into liquid. What you get out is gin. The exact botanical recipe and the order they’re added is where each distillery’s craft and personality lives.
Some producers use a technique called cold compounding, where botanical extracts are simply blended into the spirit without redistillation. It’s faster and cheaper, and tends to produce more basic results. Most quality gins you’ll encounter at Liquor Club are pot-distilled or column-distilled, which gives the botanicals a more integrated, layered character.
The Main Styles and Varieties
London Dry is the classic. Despite the name, it doesn’t have to be made in London. It’s defined by its dry, juniper-forward style with no added sweeteners after distillation. Think clean, bracing, and very mixable. Beefeater and Tanqueray sit in this category.
Contemporary or New Western gin pulls back on the juniper and lets other botanicals take centre stage. You might get more citrus, floral, or even savoury notes depending on the producer. These are the gins that have attracted a new generation of drinkers who thought they didn’t like gin.
Old Tom is a slightly sweeter style that sits historically between genever and London Dry. It’s enjoying a quiet revival among cocktail enthusiasts. Sloe gin, technically a liqueur, is made by steeping sloe berries in gin and adding sugar. It’s rich, berry-forward, and deeply wintery.
How to Taste and Enjoy Gin
Gin is best served cold but not frozen. A standard serve is 45ml over ice in a highball glass with a quality tonic water, which is a lightly bitter carbonated mixer. The glass matters more than people think. A wide-mouthed copa glass, shaped like a large wine glass, lets the botanicals breathe and delivers more aroma to your nose as you drink.
To actually taste what’s in a gin, try a small amount neat first. Look for the juniper upfront, then see what follows. Citrus peel tends to come through as bright and zesty. Coriander seed brings a dry, slightly spicy note. Angelica root, a common botanical, adds an earthy, woody base. Once you can identify the layers, you’ll start understanding why different gins suit different mixers and occasions. If you enjoy exploring complex herbal flavours in spirits, our guide on what Chartreuse is made from is worth a read alongside this one.
What to Try First
If you’re new to gin and want to start somewhere sensible, look for a London Dry that’s well-balanced and widely available. Tanqueray and Hendricks are both reliable entry points. For something with a New Zealand flavour, explore local craft distilleries that use kawakawa or horopito. They showcase what makes NZ gin genuinely different from anything produced overseas.
If you’re already comfortable with gin and want to go further, consider exploring the gin and spirits range for something more adventurous. Contemporary styles with strong floral or tea notes are a good next step. And if cocktail-making is your interest, a solid London Dry is more versatile than almost anything else behind a home bar.
Frequently Asked Questions
Does gin always taste like pine or Christmas trees?
Only if it’s made that way. Juniper does have a resinous, piney quality, but in well-made gin it’s part of a much larger picture. Contemporary styles especially can taste floral, fruity, or even vegetal, with juniper playing a quieter supporting role rather than dominating everything.
What’s the difference between gin and vodka?
Both start from a neutral grain spirit. The difference is what happens next. Vodka is refined to be as neutral as possible. Gin takes that same base and deliberately flavours it with botanicals, particularly juniper. So gin has character by design. Vodka aims for the absence of it.
Can you drink gin without tonic?
Absolutely. Gin works well in a huge range of serves. It’s a core ingredient in classic cocktails like the Negroni and the Martini. It can be sipped neat or over ice if it’s a particularly complex, high-quality expression. The gin and tonic pairing is simply the most popular because tonic’s bitterness balances gin’s botanical complexity well.
Why does gin sometimes taste like soap or perfume?
This is usually down to one of two things. Either the botanical balance is off, with floral notes like lavender or rose overwhelming everything else, or the gin is low quality and the distillation hasn’t fully integrated the ingredients. A well-made gin with strong floral notes should still feel drinkable and balanced, not like you’ve accidentally opened a linen drawer.
Liquor Club stocks New Zealands finest wines, spirits and cocktail ingredients. Browse our full range and enjoy quick delivery. Shop online at https://liquorclub.co.nz or call 09 5900300.
