Gin: It Does A Body Good

I think I mentioned a little while back that I was going to try making gin, but I never reported back. The results: FANTASTIC. Making gin is trivially easy, and we're now on our second bottle of the stuff.

Here it is steeping:



That's a fifth, so next time, I think I'll get a couple of bottles and just fill the jar.

We tried it first with regular-proof vodka, but as the house gin is Bombay Sapphire (94 proof), 80-proof gin felt a little weak in a martini. This second batch was made with Smirnoff's 100-proof vodka, and is somewhat smoother.

I started off with Serious Eats' recipe, but made a few minor modifications to suit our taste: no lavender, and I added some black peppercorns. For 1 bottle of 100-proof vodka, I used:

3T juniper berries
1.5 chamomile teabags
1 big strip (about 6") grapefruit peel, and the same of lime peel
26 peppercorns
1.5 bay leaves
3/4 t coriander seed
5 crushed cardamom pods
6 allspice berries

Steep the juniper in the vodka alone for 12 hours, then put everything else in and steep for another 36 hours. Strain and enjoy (and trust me, you will enjoy).