Gin: The Manual

This volume has been invaluable in my beginning explorations of gin.

I LOVE THIS BOOK! I got this book as a gift for my best friend who is looking to learn all he can about Gin and creating fun cocktails. He couldn't stop talking about this book so much that I bought another copy for myself. I love this book! It's so informative and super helpful! The recipes and ratios are spot on! It's my go to when I need some inspiration for my G&T's. Thank you!

This book has lots to offer to aspiring gin students, of which I count myself one.Those around me have treated it more or less magically, as a necessity for their beloved gin&tonic or martini. I admit I've treated it in a perfunctory way when ordering an Orange Blossom - a Screwdriver with gin instead of vodka. But, of late, I've developed an interest in some more complex kinds of flavor profiles. And, given the number of flavorants now used in various gins, the genre certainly has plenty to offer. I certainly admire Broom's thoroughness in pursuing gin's history as a beverage and as a social phenomenon - actually, an ongoing and living sequence of phenomena. But, I must admit, history per se holds little interest for me. And, as much as I enjoyed reading about the hundred-plus gins that Broom evaluates, I probably won't sample (or even find) more than a relative few of them, let alone the arcana of the cocktail recipes at the end. Then, as an inveterate DIY-er, Broom's convincing case for leaving it to the pros left me a bit let down. What I take away from this, despite its problems, is an approach to thinking about my experience of a fine product, finely presented. Although florid a times, it offers a language for describing the experience - but one that demands good familiarity with many of the flavorants in isolation. It reinforces the fact that a mouth feels as much as it tastes, and that matters to the drinking experience. Then there's the flavor analogy to a fact that colorists know well, that color can be perceived very differently according to other colors nearby. Likewise, experience of a flavor depends greatly on the flavors it's paired with. And, as you might experience a musical motif differently as a tune progresses, flavors also progress. Different elements present themselves in the first chilled sip, then as it warms in your mouth, then as you breath it out through the nose's rich analytic senses. So, the direct content of this book didn't offer what I might have hoped - not that any book actually could have. Instead, its language and analytic approach gave me far more than I expected. Among other things, it caused me to reconsider a gin I found at a tasting just lately. It seemed to me inauthentic, too fruity and sweet. Well, if I taste it again, I might not like it any better. I will, however, take it more seriously, consider what goals it tries to achieve (even if not mine), and place it along a much broader spectrum than I knew gins could span. -- wiredweird

Concise history, great way of breaking down the gins. I would have appreciated some kind of overall rating for the gins listed. I know there would be reasons for not doing this, but it's pretty clear from some of the reviews that the reviewer thinks the quality of the gin itself is not so great. Or, it's hard to tell if it's just a gin that doesn't mix well but stands up really well on its own, or if it actually sucks.

Don't need to agree with all of Broom's tasting notes to make the definitive judgement that this a worthwhile and enjoyable addition to the intelligent drinking man's library. If I ever have the pleasure of meeting him, drinks are on me!

Great in depth guide describing brands of gin (something I don't think similar books have), process of making, taste/smell and how well they mix in most popular drinks. Predominant history. (Not as in depth as other similar books)/ Purchasing guide/ a little bit of drink recipes and pointers. You will learn a lot about history/types of gin from this.

May amend this in the near future but I open the cover and see the last half of book is devoted to specific gins. I appreciate the research and the heady use of a thesaurus but it just looks like product placement - it’s a smart idea if true.

This is a great value for the money. The printing is high quality and there are a wide variety of gins covered in the book. The reviews are insightful and this has helped my Son, who this was a gift for, expand his tasting profile.

For All GIN Affectionados. A comprehensive Gin Boble. Loved it

After the mixed bag that is Ian Buxton’s 101 Gins To Try Before you Die, I had high hopes that another of my favoured wordsmiths wouldn’t just be adding their thoughts on a new category having spent their careers honing their whisky knowledge. Merging history, practical information, tasting notes on a substantial array of brands as well as a few cocktails, the book is complete and provides a really good insight into Gin as spirit. The brand selection is both far-reaching and inclusive to all styles, with a more global selection than either Buxton’s 101 Gins to Try before you die (heavily British focus) or Aaron Knowles’ Gin (heavy American focus). The way the tasting notes are formed, articulated and formatted along how the drinks made were created and the scoring system are easy to comprehend and engaging. It has a rich depth of content, well-presented information and adds to the category by providing new insight to the history of gin and to where it is a spirit today. Best Gin book of the year so far (there are still 3 more due to be released at the time of writing this review).

L'’autorevolezza dell’autore ha creato una grande attesa intorno a questo libro, che quando è uscito un paio di anni fa, ha avuto il merito di portare ancora più avanti la ricerca intorno al Gin. Buona parte delle pagine, sono dedicate alle schede dei Gin, divisi per nazionalità, con una buona rappresentanza di quello che è questo fenomeno ai giorni nostri. La scelta è stata accurata, ovviamente non completa, ma di ottimo livello di sicuro. Interessante il sistema di votazione abbinato ad alcune preparazioni classiche, per dimostrare che alcuni Gin vadano usati per taluni cocktail e non per altri. Non manca ovviamente la parte storica, l’approfondimento sugli stili di produzione e un ottima sezione a riguardo dei cocktail a base di Gin, con spiegazioni dettagliate e mai banali (vedi i consigli sulla proporzione del Negroni).

A comprehensive look into most of the major gin distilleries in the United Kingdom, along with some international ones. Each page has an individual gin profile which also includes the company's history. The author even provides a mixing scoring system. This makes for easier sorting and classifications of different gins. This format seems to work and is similar to the way the book Whisky Classified is composed. There were certain gins I would have liked to have seen included such as Hayman's Sloe Gin. I also would have liked more information and photographs of the gin distilleries, but I guess keeping the book in a compact format limits the amount of material you can include. Perhaps the author would consider an expanded edition for some of the omissions and some of the more recent releases? Overall, I think "Gin ' The Manual" is an excellent reference guide, and a must-have for anyone interested in gin and its history or mixology in general.

War ein Geschenk und kam beim Gin-Liebhaber super an. Es werden nun immer mal ein paar Zutaten aus dem Buch gekauft und fleißig ausprobiert.