Quite Continental Charm School: Day 21 — Drink More Gin
21/02/2012 § 9 Comments
The Quite Continental Charm School
A modern guide to creating a charmed life
Women in a New York City bar, 1941. Taken by Nina Leen for Life Magazine.
Editor’s Note: I’m very pleased to introduce our next guest speaker! My good friend Marisa Zupan is a journalist, writer and the founder of the excellent men’s style blog The Significant Other, where she provides a thoughtful and studied female opinion on issues, brands and individuals important to the well-dressed man. If your boyfriend/father/boss/anyone! is in need of a bit of a sartorial upgrade, please forward him to Marisa posthaste.
After I learned of our shared love of wearing beautiful neckties, I guessed we would get along famously, and I was right. Marisa is one of the most grounded and supportive individuals I have ever had the pleasure of meeting and I’m also quite pleased she chose to write about gin, one of my favorite libations. If you are not yet familiar with Marisa, or The Significant Other, it is my pleasure to introduce you.
Without any further ado, Marisa’s tip for a charmed life.
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Day 21: Drink More Gin
Let’s face it ladies, you’ve been drinking mostly vodka your whole life. In high school it was vodka and crystal light (everyone did that right?), college it was vodka and whatever the hell juice your roommate had in the fridge, and in your young adult life it’s been some vodka martinis with the occasional ironic whiskey on the rocks to switch things up. Through all of this, gin has really gotten the short end of the stick. I’ll admit, in my younger less classy days, I thought gin tasted like licking the underside of a moss covered rock, but those days are over and this year will be the one when I educate my much more mature palate.
Like its flavor profile, Gin’s history is varied and complex. It was discovered by Italian monks, used as medicine during the bubonic plague and, because it was cheap and (too) readily available, gin became associated with people and places of disrepute in London. Despite its sordid past, gin made a come back in the British colonies and has since then been the spirit of choice in some of the classiest and most popular cocktails. In my efforts to become more gin-knowledgeable, I discovered Brooklyn Gin, a company based right in my backyard. The ingredients, fresh citrus and juniper berries, are bought at a market only a 10 minute walk from my apartment, and distilled 30 minutes out side of the city. Local and delicious, what more could a lady ask for? A cocktail recipe. Below is just that, I hope you enjoy, here’s to kicking the vodka habit and getting more sophisticated in 2012.
Olive Rosemary Martini (via Martha Stewart)
Ingredients
2 ounces gin
2 teaspoons dry vermouth
1 rosemary sprig
Pitted olives
To Make:
Shake 2 ounces gin and 2 teaspoons dry vermouth with crushed ice; strain into a stemmed glass. Strip leaves from bottom 2 inches of a rosemary sprig, skewer through pitted olives, and add to the drink.
by Marisa Zupan, of The Significant Other.
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Any blogger that tells me to drink more is a fan of mine! 🙂 I don’t think I’ve ever had gin before but I’ll be giving it a try for sure.
I do hope you enjoy! Thank you for stopping by!
G&T is my cocktail of choice (well, after a tasty craft brew).
Pennsylvania readers should check out their state stores for Bluecoat gin. Locally distilled in Philly, it tastes a bit like Tanqueray.
Happy blog birthday, Mariah!
Thanks very much, Miss Minty!
Oh yes, I adore G&Ts, and a good aviation. I’ll be on the lookout for Bluecoat, I would love to give it a try!
Gin. Oh yes, gin. Vodka has become but a distant memory and now I resent it’s sit-on-the-fence approach to flavour. A cool G&T is the solution to all problems, and a nice dry gin martini with a twist of lemon, rocks my socks.
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