Spring awakening: Gin cocktails to put the ‘spring’ in your step

Ah, spring. The time of rebirth and of new romance.

For me, spring also screams gin! That’s because when the mercury starts climbing, I hanker for the starched, thirst-quenching taste of this curiously unsung spirit.

Now before you say you don’t drink gin “because it makes me act crazy,” or you, “can’t stand the taste,” let me just say that’s nuts. I already know you’re one of those people who “loves” vodka.

Right, well gin is basically vodka distilled with botanicals. And I bet I could change your mind if I gave you a good gin drink. Consider that I recently served a gin and tonic by accident to a neighbor friend who’d asked for a vodka and tonic. Did she notice? Nope. And she loved it! Best gin and tonic ever, she gushed. Why? Because I used good gin and good tonic.

Now gin has come a long way from the bathtub and kitchen sink, where Prohibition-era partiers used to cook up batches of in. Inspired by gin’s recent renaissance, producers big and small are cranking out gins.

This article appears in Mar 24-30, 2011.