Gin
The Portland Tribune has an interesting article highlighting two recent entrants into the gin market: Bendistillery and House Spirits. While many people already know that “gin is the new vodka“, it still hasn’t really made a comeback, but these new businesses are attempting to make that a reality.
Anyway, what’s most interesting to me is where they get the juniper berries necessary for making gin. Bendistillery actually gets them from “gnarly juniper trees” on state land in Oregon! Apparently, all you need is an inexpensive license from the Bureau of Land Management. It doesn’t even sound all that labor intensive. They send only one employee out on a trip three to five times a year.
House Spirits, on the other hand, gets their berries from Norway. They feel that the local berries are “too resiny and harsh”.
These sorts of quality gin are the ones you probably don’t want to dilute with the taste of tonic water. Instead, you’ll probably want to have it as a real martini, neat, or on the rocks to savor the taste.
I also found the random facts at the beginning of the article intriguing. Did you know that gin used to be cheaper than beer and cleaner than water? It used to be considered a poor man’s drink, and it was brought into common usage by the Dutch in the early 17th century. It was originally made as a medicine, and juniper berries were added to make it less disgusting.
