Gin, however, is definitely English. The juniper comes from the Dutch spirit, but the recipe and method that gives us gin is, officially, all ours. Fentimans Valencian Orange Tonic Water – Beautiful aromatic tonic water made with quinine, oranges and lemongrass. It pairs well with Fifty Pounds Gin – garnish with a sprig of thyme and orange zest. If you’re looking for a less aromatic G&T, try Fentimans Connoisseurs Tonic Water. Double Dutch Pomegranate & Basil – Basil is part of the anise family and has similar flavours to liquorice, making it a nice match with the botanicals in Fifty Pounds Gin. Pomegranate adds a subtle sweetness. This tonic will bring out the herbaceous aromas. For the first 12 years I would sometimes go to bed wondering what I’d done, but I wasn’t bloody going to give up. And then, hey presto, along came the 2000s,” he says. Fifty Pounds Gin takes its name from one of the darkest times in Britain’s past and one of the most controversial in the history of Gin. When Dutch-born William of Orange took the English throne in 1688, England unwittingly (and unintentionally) began its descent into one of the first recorded drug epidemics – with Gin at the heart of it.

Bermondsey Tonic Water (BTW) comes highly recommended. This concentrated tonic syrup has a well-balanced bitter-sweet flavour. With BTW the ideal ratio is 1:5 with carbonated water but also comes as a ready mixed tonic which gets its beautiful amber hue from the natural cinchona bark used to make it rather than quinine extract. Bermondsey Tonic has a beautiful amber hue. There is a problem with the juniper berry. It’s not actually a berry – in fact, it’s technically a pinecone.Launched in 2010 and made at Thames distillery, Fifty Pounds Gin is made with a grain spirit base where the botanicals are steeped in this alcohol for at least two days, after which it is distilled. The exact botanical line is kept secret but thought to contain 11 in total. The first eight are relatively common - Juniper, angelica root, coriander, liquorice root, grains of paradise, lemon, orange rind and savoury. Interestingly, while savoury is less spoken about, it has become a part of quite a few gins in recent years, as it is a favoured botanical of Thames Master Distiller, Charles Maxwell (who also makes other gins for different owners). The three other botanicals are a fiercely kept secret although to taste our guess is that nutmeg and cassia bark seem likely candidates for two! Before the Ginaissance really started, the choice of tonic waters was minimal and the quality was not great due to the various artificial ingredients and sweeteners used. These artificial flavourings can create a slight metallic taste, which can also ruin the taste of good-quality gin when served together. You want your tonic to have enough bubbles, long-lasting fizziness and natural flavour, good enough for you to drink it on its own. Some like it more citrusy, others dry and crisp. And, finally – well, possibly, there could be more – Gin may have been inspired by Holland, and perfected in England but it’s drunk mostly in The Philippines? Filipinos consume a remarkable 1.4 litres per person every year, compared to the UK’s paltry-by-comparison 0.4 litres. Mother’s ruin The celebrated citrus note of Fifty Pounds Gin is due to the use of citrus as a botanical but, also, because we use coriander. “It’s the perfect foil to juniper,” explains Max Wells, Master Distiller and coriander means “you can get gin with no citrus peel in at all and it will taste of citrus.” The nose of Fifty Pounds Gin is lemon, lime, juniper, and very classic in character. Just a tinge of sweetness and creamy lemon as well. The nose is markedly lighter and clearer then the palate.

In terms of Fifty Pounds the challenge was to create a gin when, at the time it was launched, the gin market was going like a steam-train. The challenge was to actually break in and make a presence in that market. Fifty Pounds Gin has been extraordinarily successful in that and it’s now exported to something like 30 different countries around the world. As a small gin distiller I find it quite an achievement that I can go into bars, whether it be in Hong Kong, Colombia, USA, Spain, or Germany, and find them serving Fifty Pounds gin.

Profile

Fever-Tree was the first all-natural tonic brand to take advantage of the growing popularity of gin. Today they are hugely successful, with several flavoured tonics also available. Many would say Fever-Tree is their number-one choice, their go-to tonic. However, in recent years, several other brands have emerged, and with consumers becoming more open to sampling various combinations, there is room for many brands to shine. Try these tonics with Fifty Pounds Gin: Jeffrey’s tonic is recommended to be mixed at a 1:5 ratio with soda. There are two Jeffrey’s syrups that stand out when looking for a mixer for Fifty Pounds Gin. The Original Recipe with an orange peel as a garnish, and the Lime, Galangal & Orange is great with a lime twist. As if you need telling! Combine in a glass filled with ice and garnish with whatever takes your fancy!

I was all set to write a middling review on this stuff. I really was. But I said to myself, “What are we if we don’t have some standards?” whereupon I poured myself a glass of it neat to establish a final word. And guess what? The Fifty Pounds availed itself nicely!A favourite tipple of Queen Elizabeth, who is said to be partial to this as a nightcap, carrying on a tradition set by her late mother. A refreshingly fruity drink with a slightly bitter edge In the years that followed, continued legislation and other social reasons lead to the increased production. It didn’t happen overnight, nor was there a single moment that tipped the balance and lead to the swathe of poor quality spirits being made in the UK. I’m a great fan of Beefeater 24 Gin, I think it’s a superb gin and Desmond Payne (Master Distiller) did an amazing job when he created that. I also like straight Tanqueray Gin - I think it’s another really nice gin. Records the default button state of the corresponding category & the status of CCPA. It works only in coordination with the primary cookie. In 2007 he created Fifty Pounds Gin, which was inspired in an earlier period of boom and bust for the spirit immortalised by Hogarth’s Gin Lane and Beer Street prints in the mid-18th century.

A Bloody Mary is vodka and tomato juice. A gin and tomato juice – a celebrated hangover cure years before the Bloody Mary became a thing – is known as a Red Snapper. This cookie is set by Rubicon Project to control synchronization of user identification and exchange of user data between various ad services. Gin’s origins are Dutch. British troops fighting the Thirty Years War got somewhat hooked on a local tipple, called “jenever” – the Dutch name for juniper, the key flavour in the drink. He resists the suggestion that this was visionary on his part. “No it wasn’t – it was obstinate,” he laughs. “It was just what I knew. It’s totally in my blood.” Fifty Pounds Gin is a London gin. That’s not because it’s where we make it. London Gin is a defined style, where the predominant flavour must be juniper and its flavour must come from the distillation process – you can’t add flavours, or colour, after distillation.

The brief, Charles explains, was to create a traditional London gin with a good citrus component as well as some spice, that would first and foremost make an excellent G&T. Tonic syrups are made with natural ingredients and are often amber in colour. Instead of quinine extract, they are made from the bark straight from the cinchona tree, which gives the syrup its colour. You know how some people say they don’t like gin, but it’s actually the taste of the tonic water that they don’t like? Tonic syrups allow you to dilute the quinine flavour to a preferred level of bitterness. You simply combine the syrup with sparkling or soda water, usually 1 part of syrup to 4 parts of soda, but this varies with each brand and your taste. And it’s not just quinine that helped prevent disease. Juniper is a natural flea repellent. During the years of the plague, doctors would wear masks filled with juniper as they believed it protected them from bad odours, the then suspected cause of the plague. They were only half right, but it’s still a win. Mind you, if it did dilute the contents, the results could be useful – if left a while. Experts suggest the best way to taste gins for comparison is to dilute the gin with an equal measure of water and sample it at room temperature. With an on-trade focus for 2015 planned and continued exports to Spain and other countries, volume looks set to grow steadily for Fifty Pounds Gin. As always in a highly competitive Gin market – it rests to be seen if it has the provenance and authenticity to make an impact. Charles Maxwell and Thames distillery are highly regarded as both authentic and of impeccable pedigree so they can indeed rely on this as a trump card. However, the third party nature of contract distilling and the fact that Thames make over 70 other gins who claim the exact same provenance and expertise as Fifty Pounds, nullifies any point of difference for the brand.