Alcolog

Technically it's not a gin shortage, but I haven't been able to get my favorite gins in months and it's starting to be a bit concerning. Tonight's drinking session will result in me running out of gin for the foreseeable future.
This is hyperbole, of course, because you can still get gin in Minneapolis - it's just not Dutch gin or Jenever. This is for forebearer for the English version that most people drink. Dutch gins tend to be mellow and less piney than what you would expect from an English gin. Tonight's jenever is Damrak, an American version of the traditional Lucas Bols recipe. The botanicals in this are so complex that the taste will be affected by the glass used to drink it. In a rocks glass, this reminds me of a jelly doughnut. In a cognac glass, the anise and orange permeate the nose.
The other gins that I would normally have on hand are:
Zuidam
Boomsma
Schlichte Steinhäger
All of these are excellent examples of gins that aren't what you've had if you've only had English gin. If you see them, I suggest giving them a try.

Yes, I'll be posting about WhiskyFest eventually. However, I was struck by what I actually brought back from Chicago: Three gins, two Scotches, a rye, a Bourbon, an American whiskey, and a rum. This might be from the under-representation of gin in Minneapolis, but really it's an appreciation that a good gin is worth the effort.

Curiously enough, I did quip during the return that, "it's not like there'd be a 'GinFest'." But really gin and vodka are an underpinning that contributed to the diversity of WhiskyFest.

These days it's popular to finance a new distillery by first bottling a vodka or a gin while the whiskies of the future rest in casks. Two of the three gins I bought fall within that class: Junipero from Anchor Distilling and Blackwood's. Anchor is really stretched thin on their stocks, so a certain percentage of the raw spirit is being bottled as a gin. Blackwood's, the future spoiler to Highland Park's claim of the northernmost Scotch distillery, hasn't even built any stills but is using an unspecified distillery to sell vodka and gin even before they have a still of their own.
Other distilleries who have stocks of aged whiskies will still sell vodka and/or gin to subsidize their current expenses. Examples of this would be Penderyn, Buffalo Trace, and Cooley (Clontarf).

Sadly, most newer stills are sticking with vodka rather than dipping a toe into the botanical bathtub of gin. For those that do put forth the effort, they can be rewarded handsomely for their efforts. A good vodka is revered for its lack of taste, while a good gin is revered for its taste's complexity. Care to guess which of those attributes is prized in the aged spirits?

It's not every day you get to taste a piece of history, or at least a piece of history that's unaged. But it's hard not to be grandiose about tasting a gin that hasn't been available in the Unites States for over a half century. Old tom gin was once the most popular gin in the world. It was the original gin of England as genever transformed into the gin we know today. For this reason, it's seen as the missing link of the gin world.

Why Old tom? When gin came into prominence in England, the gin houses would put black tomcats on their signs. The "old" is a nod to it being the old standard gin of its time. It's also why so many gin cocktails have "tom" in their name. So, in a way, today's London Dry could be called "new tom" gin. But as London dry gained in popularity, old tom suffered. Then, as vodka started to supplant gin in drinks like martinis and gimlets, old tom faded from view.

But now it's back, thanks to the transformation of the American bartender. There's a growing set of bartenders who are seen more as mixologists than drink slingers. Within that population, there's a subset known as the historical mixologist. They research the drinks that were popular a century ago, and finding that the ingredients aren't around anymore. Old tom came back because these mixologists wanted to make the original Tom Collins, and more importantly the martinez, widely considered the progenitor of the modern martini.

Enter Eric Seed of Haus Alpenz importers. His young business focuses on importing rare and niche liquors like old tom. He was able to secure import rights to Hayman's Old Tom Gin, and its been gradually coming into markets around the country. It's a bit ironic that Eric is based in Minneapolis and I've been in search of this gin for months now. Not until late last month was it possible for places here to buy it, and Town Talk Diner happened to be the first place to offer it on-sale.

So I'm sitting here, at the bar, staring at seven bottles of gin. Old tom is sitting on the end, with representation from all stripes of gin and genever lined to the left. I gotta say there's a reason why it's back - none of these gins taste like it at all. Well, Bluecoat from Philadelphia is close, but only because it has such a bold profile. The obvious closest relatives are the Boomsma jonge or the Old Raj, but I can't make the link. This gin really does belong in a class by itself. A class that has sadly been under-attended for decades but, hopefully, will expand as people try it again, for the first time.