I like Hendricks.
Mostly tastes of cucumber, nice with tonic (garnished with cucumber, not lemon).
But then, I drink this stuff as my vodka of choice, and am partial to the sugary evil that is Morgan’s Spiced Rum so obviously YMMV.
I am not a big Gin lover but a friend of mine turned me onto 209. That is a nice gin without too much of the aftertaste of most gins.
I know it is difficult to get here in Washington State–not sure about other areas of the country.
I think the Bed, Bath and Beyond at the Buena Park Mall smells like it.
99% of the gins sold in the USA are London (dry) gins. They are flavored with orange peel, coriander, juniper berries, etc. Hollands gin is different-it is sweet and dark-aged, like whiskey.
Anyone ever had it?
I’m having my first salty dog based on this thread and liking it a lot. Yay, gin!
Ralph-- I’ve had a lot of hollands genevers (and their sad brother, Belgian. . . which is still ok). It’s kind of considered an old man drink, but I like it a lot. The kids drink the flavored kind (great to see a pack of 16 year old whatever the Belgian equivalent of Eagle scout in uniforms getting trashed on chocolate jenevers during a festival, while their grandmothers nearby get trashed on some 12% beer). I had an advisor in grad school bust out some 25-y.o. jenevers at a party that was just fantastic.
Here is my old thread on gin. Most of the same things in there have been mentioned in here.
Mmm Hendrick’s OM NOM NOM. Someone (maybe irishgirl) in my thread mentioned adding cucumber slices as garnish to a Hendrick’s G&T, which is brilliant and tasty.
Sometimes you can get lucky at BevMo and catch Plymouth deeply discounted. One of my favorite gins.
I’ve only been developing a taste for gin during the last few years so my experience in the area is somewhat limited. Still, as a gin-based cocktail, I prefer Gin Rickeys over Gin & Tonics. I should note, however, that Gin Rickeys are pretty much an “old school” cocktail so many bartenders aren’t familiar with it.
I think that a gin rickey, a salty dog, a tom collins, and a gin an tonic are remarkably similar drinks that depend on how much bitter you like with your gin. A ricky is lime bitter, a tom collins a whiskey sour bitter/sweet and a tonic or salty dog extremely bitter. They’re all analogs of one another in my book though.
Weeks to recover? Wow. Do you keep your tongue in a sealed, protective vessel like David Duchovny’s character kept his hand in Zoolander? 
Tonic’s evilness resides on a plane aside from the one we normally can perceive. Perhaps with an exorcism or some ancient shaman remedy I might be able to recover sooner but I’ve not yet found it.
When I was drinking, gin was pretty much my main chosen poison.
If on a budget, Booths and even Burnetts are acceptable. Especially if you are going to mix with tonic and add lime. Gin mixes well with most clear sodas - 7-Up, Sprite, Ginger Ale.
I’d avoid Seagrams (Bump), Gordon’s, or Gibleys (unless, of course, I was thirsty and someone else was buying!)
But for anything of Tanq or Beef quality or above, no need to mix with anything other than ice. If the ice is watering down your gin, then you simply aren’t drinking fast enough!
You can always do a Tom Collins, Gin, Collins mix and Club soda.
Or what someone I know called a Dirty Pirate 2 oz Gin, 2 Oz rum and 2 Oz Pineapple juice.
Or, the right way. 3 oz gin, splash of vermouth and two olives :). In an extremely cold glass.
If you ever make it to Spain (possible available elsewhere in Europe) try Xoriguer gin – much different from Engish gin. Non-gin drinkers in the group were enjoying it straight up.
Oh yes, G&BL has to be Gordons London Dry
One of the great drinks altho’ in the USA, BL is well nigh impossible to find.
On the other hand here, in dear old Blighty, we don’t have that problem.
I’ll have a Gin and Bitter Lemon, tall glass, ice and a slice…and be pretty quick about it 
My only experience with gin was a bad one. I asked for the el-cheapo Taaka vodka, and they gave me the Taaka Gin instead. I had no idea until I took a swig.
Horrifying.
Joe
Has anyone here tried infusing gin with cloves? That is how they drank it in 1984, isn’t it? I always wondered what that tasted like.
ok, so I happened to be at the grocery store last night and noticed that Plymouth was on sale for $19.99, making it a whole $5 cheeper than the next least expensive recommendation (Bombay Saphire). So, I got myself a bottle and a couple of bottles of tonic (sorry Omniscient but I had to find out for myself.) I didn’t get any lemon or lime because I thought I had some at home…I was wrong.
Still, I took a double old fashioned glass filled it with ice and poured a shot and a half into the glass. then topped up the glass with tonic. Before I tasted the drink I finished the second half of the shot straight. “Hmmm, that’s surprisingly tastey” I thought to myself. So I sat down to drink my G&T. It wasn’t bad, but I am not sure that I would want to do it again. I think Omniscient may be right and it was the tonic that was putting me off. I will experiment again tonight with less tonic water and maybe some salt and a lime. Then I move onto trying gimlets. I would just drink it straight, but I am looking for a drink that I can sip on for a few hours on a hot evening and I don’t know that I can reasonably just sit and drink gin on the rocks. It seems wrong somehow.
Anyway, further suggestions on what else I should experiment with are very welcome. I have a liter of this to play with, so I figure I should make the most of it.
Plymouth is a sweet gin (as opposed to London Dry Gin)that uses junniper berries, lemon peel, orange peel, orris root, angelica root, and cardamon & coriander seeds.
Interesting. I liked the lemoney taste of it. What would be a good example of a dry gin? (For future taste comparisons)
Burnett’s is probably the best buy for G+T’s- we have it at $12, I think. Martin Miller’s is pretty damned good straight up or in a martini. Any one ever had Old Raj? I loved the little illustrations on the side- shooting a tiger in the bush! Time for Old Raj straight up! Relaxing on the verandah- time for Old Raj and tonic. What I didn’t understand was why it was $72! It sat on the shelf for 3 years before someone finally bought it.