10 GIN cocktails to make at Home

@travelsomm

5 min readJun 2, 2020

Stuck at home without any fancy gins and ingredients to make cocktails ?

Here’s 10 basic tropical recipes to get you started in 3 minutes.

Level of difficulty: Very Easy

Time: 1–3 mins

The Old Fashion

Classic Gin and Tonic. That’s where the quality of the GIN shines here. See Boutique Gins. I won’t get into the classy Tonic Water because they might to difficult to source. I would recommend Fever Tree Indian Tonic Water but if you can’t find it, Schweppes Tonic Water is good enough. Yes there’s sweetness but with 8g (2 teaspoon) of sugars per 100ml, it provides good balance to the cocktails. Beware of artificial sweeteners. My secret ratio is 1:2 , taking in account for ice melt.

Gin 60ml (2 standard drinks)

Tonic Water 120ml

Garnishes such as slice of lemon, cucumber, oranges, green mangoes

Negroni

Add equal parts of 1 shot Campari + 1 Shot Gin + 1 Vermouth Rosso in a mixing glass. Add a lot of ice and stir. Strain out into your glass over a big ice cube. This particular Negroni by East India Company really surprise me. Check out https://eastindiantrade.com

Asian Flavors

These are the drinks that are nostalgic of my times in Asia. Relaxing on the beach in Islands of Thailand or a hot day in humid Singapore, working in Cambodia.

Gin Mojito

Gin Mojito | Muddle 12 mint leaves, 1/4 Lime, 1 teaspoon Sugar in a old fashion glass. Add 60ml Gin or Rum and ice. Top up with 30–40ml of club soda / lemonade / tonic water. Garnish with Lemon Granita or extra mint.

Lycee Gin Tonic

This one sets me back to my childhood favourite; Canned Fruit with Ice | Traditional Asian Styled Canned Lycees are the best use in this G/T. Add 60ml Gin to Ice. Add 50ml of Lycee Syrup + 50ml of Tonic Water. Garnish with 2 Lycees.

Pineapple Cinnamon Gin

Pineapple + Cinnamon + Gin + Tonic Water + Ice | Classic Gin & Tonic paired by fresh pineapple (soaked in cinnamon). Garnish with a Cinnamon Stick. Alt use 50ml of pineapple juice + 50ml Soda Water instead.

Pandan & Coconut Gin

Coconut Juice + Pandan + Gin + Ice + Soda Water | Inspired by the Seekers Gin, Cambodia which has Pandan tasting notes. Use 60ml Gin + Ice + 60ml of Coconut Juice + 60ml Soda Water. Alternatively, infuse pandan into gin, leave overnight. Garnish with Pandan leaf.

Khaffir & Calamansi Lime Gin

Khaffir lime leaves + Calamansi Limes + Lemonade + Gin + Ice | Juice about 15ml of Calamansi Lime juice. Best results to infuse Gin with sliced Khaffir Lime Leaves. Add 60ml Gin with Ice and 100ml of sweeter style tonic water or lemonade / sprite. (Alternatively balance with 1teaspoon of fine sugar to taste). Stir or Shaken and strainned Serve with Lime Zest and Khaffir Leaf

Infused Gins

Infused GIN is another creativity way to create more layers in the flavor profiles. You can use in place of boutique Gins, preferably a good neutral London Dry Gin as a base.

Level of difficulty: Easy — Medium

Time: 1– 24 hours to infuse, 1–3 mins to make

Oolong Gin

Use about 2–3 grams of Oolong tea and infuse with 30–60 ml gin into a clean bottle for 3 hours, or overnight. Oolong, Pu-erh are typically are very delicate flavours so trick is to over steep it slightly as a concentrate. Use gin as you could normally. Pair with your favourite tonic water. Garnish with Red dates or Lemon or Orange Slice

Blue Butterfly Gin

The butterfly pea flower is a natural blue colourant, making things blue and turning purple after adding lemons. Use about 3–4 butterfly pea flower petals and infuse with 30–60 ml gin into a clean bottle for 4 hours, or overnight. It has little flavour but a rich blue colour. Use gin as you could normally. Pair with your favourite tonic water. Garnish with Lemon or Orange Slice. If you have a shaker handy, you can make nam dok anchan with honey, mint, cinnamon, passion fruit, and ginger.

Hong Kong Lemon Tea Gin Tonic

Cut open 1/2 English Breakfast / Lipton teabag and infuse with 30–60 ml gin into a clean bottle for 2 hours. Trick is to over steep it slightly as a concentrate. Use gin as you could normal. Pair with a sweeter tonic water. Garnish with Lemon. (It is customary for you to muddle the lemon slices.)

Boutique Artisan Gins

Next, we will cover some of my boutique favourites.

Notes

The point is to have FUN, using ingredients that you have at home during these difficult times no matter where you are in the world. This is also a basic flavor profile exercise where you get to identify and describe different ingredients that you can use in building your own artisan cocktails next.

Basic wine & bar skills are taught free to youths in Cambodia, Thailand, Myanmar, empowering them to have the confidence to make, serve, talk to customers in a F&B service setting. Local produces like cucumbers, oranges, limes are bought directly from the farmer

About the author

I am a Sommelier (and in-flight Sommelier) based in Sydney with a wine journey of 22 years, with avid interest in boutique gins, champagnes and food wine pairing. Curious about boutique crafted GINs and how its made, profiling different gin flavors for the last 3 years. I teach basic wine appreciation and back to basics bar tending in bars, restaurants for free in Cambodia, Myanmar, Thailand.