[imagesource: Robert Rieger]

A few years ago, the world was suddenly caught up in a gin frenzy.

Once a drink that your gran enjoyed every so often, gin was suddenly everyone’s favourite tipple, and gin distilleries inspired to find creative ways to reinvent the spirit rose up to meet the needs of the masses.

As with all things, it had to start somewhere.

Bloomberg reckons it can be traced back to one man, Alexander Stein, the creator of Monkey 47 gin.

He’s the gentleman in the image above, and looking somewhat more hardcore in the image below, with his latest gin, The Horse’s Spirit.

Stein is an ambassador for all the folks out there toying with ingredients and blending formulas to create concoctions that would have seemed insane when gin first came onto the scene in the 16th century as a way to treat circulation.

Monkey 47 gin, described as “the mother of all German indie gins”, has been around for some time, and was inspired by old gin recipe from the Black Forest in Germany.

Stein did some digging and found out that he was a descendant of the family that had founded a distillery in the region.

Via Friends of Friends:

The legend of that gin recipe told of an officer of the Royal Air Force who had settled in the Black Forest following World War II and began distilling from locally sourced juniper berries (originally known for their use in Black Forest ham) and other plant extracts.

Stein stook that recipe and started experimenting with all sorts of herbs, botanicals and fruits, and eventually, Monkey 47 gin was born.

It contained 47 different ingredients, about a third of which originated from the Black Forest, including acacia blooms, spruce shoots and blackberry leaves.

Today, thanks to pioneers like Stein, we have a wide range of gins to choose from, infused with flavours that have elevated them to new heights.

Some, like the locally produced Cape Town Gin Rooibos Red and Cape Town Gin Pink Lady, for example, can be enjoyed as both a sipping gin and with a mixer.

If you’re old school or prefer the simpler things in life, Cape Town Gin Company also offers a finely crafted Classic Gin.

The major difference between craft classic gins and the mass-produced stuff you’ve seen on the shelves since time immemorial is that the taste and smoothness have been given careful consideration to ensure a premium G&T experience.

Back to Bloomberg, for a word from Stein:

“In the spirits industry, we talk about categories like rum, or whisky, or gin, rather than flavor compounds and aroma structures,” Stein says.

“It’s the complete opposite of the way we talk about perfumers or chefs where there seems to be no such barriers to innovate.”

Stein has continued in his quest to shake up the alcohol industry, especially as a new wave of younger gin drinkers emerge, eager to try novel things.

Stein even went as far at one point as distilling a Big Mac, though more as a light-hearted experiment. And although initial feedback from friends and colleagues has been positive, Horse With No Name is bound to rile purists when it goes on sale early next year.

That seems like a terrible idea, but he gets points for originality.

Remember those local craft gins that I mentioned earlier? The Cape Town Gin range?

If you’re keen to give them a try, before you pick your favourite, you’ll find a triple pack, containing all three gins in 50ml bottles, for R115 on Takealot.

Just know that you’ll want to stock up on all three once you’ve tried them.

[sources:bloomberg&friendsoffriends]