Sometimes it’s nice to just sit down and write an uncomplicated review where I don’t have to analyze why a book didn’t work for me, or try to convert my absolute delight into coherent words. This is going to be a very straightforward review because Gin: A Tasting Course by Anthony Gladman is exactly what it claims to be. It’s a book that will tell you about gin, and how to taste it, and how to make drinks with it, and the taste profiles of a variety of gins currently on the market.
If you are somebody who likes gin and you only want one book exclusively about gin on your shelf, this is probably the one I’d suggest. I feel like it’s the most thorough, and brings together a variety of information into one spot. In order to do this, it does sacrifice the cocktails, including only a small amount of classic recipes, but let’s face it, you can find cocktail recipes online, or in a non-gin-specific book.
I appreciated that this book really got into the nitty-gritty and the scientific side of things. It talks about the different methods of distillation and infusing gin with botanicals. It not only tells you what botanicals are commonly used in gin, but what chemicals are responsible for the primary scent and flavor notes we pick up from them. It talks about how to do a tasting, which is knowledge which can then be applied to anything else you’d like to taste and record notes on. It provides some helpful tips on what tools and glassware to have on hand for tasting gin and making cocktails, and I appreciate that it’s very practical here, pointing out what you might already have that you can use if you don’t want to spend a lot of cash on specialized bar gear, or which items are good multi-taskers if you do want to buy some gear.
There’s also a history of gin, which I personally didn’t need because I have the same info in several other books, but if this was your only gin book, you’d probably be glad to have all the info in one spot.
A significant section of the book is taken up by tasting notes for a large number of gins, broken into categories such as citrus or floral. I’m a bit torn on this section. On the one hand, I enjoyed reading about all the different gins, and the tasting notes could be helpful for either thinking about how to structure your own, or for identifying gins that sound good and that you would like to buy for yourself. This is less helpful for me because 1. I already have a lot of gin (it’s my favorite spirit!), and 2. because the author is in the UK, I don’t know how many of these brands are available in the US. But look, if the author managed to either get his publisher to buy all of this gin, or got the brands to provide it free or at a discount, by including them in the book, more power to him.
One thing I really liked was the layout and design of the book. There’s a lot of information here, but the text is broken up with graphs, illustrations, vintage images, and more. The cocktail recipes are presented with the proportions of ingredients displayed in an illustrated glass, for instance, and the tasting notes all have a web-style graph of six primary flavor types, as well as an image of the bottle to make it easier to find in the store.
I have a novel in progress where one of the characters is a gin distiller, and I just know I’ll be reaching for this book when I return to that project, for the helpful illustrations of stills and the nerdy details about botanicals.
This would definitely make a great gift for the gin-lover in your life, especially since it only came out last year so they’re less likely to already have it.
CWs and TWs: This is obviously a book about alcohol so there’s a lot of discussion of alcohol. There’s also discussion of alcohol abuse in the history section, and a bit about colonization.
Format and Source: I read this in hardback form, purchased at my local gin distillery, Temple Distilling.
Book Bingo Prompts
Nook & Cranny (Card 2): Let’s Get Spiritual. As I just mentioned in my review of All About Love, I am not a spiritual person. I could probably find a book related to spirituality that I’d enjoy, but I’d much rather read a book about distilled spirits.
Book Bingo Progress
Nook & Cranny (Card 1): 13 out of 25 prompts complete. 1 bingo.
Nook & Cranny (Card 2): 9 out of 25 prompts complete. 0 bingos.