So, we're going to make a cocktail, three different cocktails, but with one gin. No. So, we're going to try through all of them. And then depending on how long that takes, we will pick which one would be best for which type of cocktail. Right. And then make them. Yeah, that's what I meant. Oh, yeah. I thought you meant make three cocktails of all. No, no, no. I don't think that would go very quickly. Pick the gin for the cocktail? Yeah. What are our cocktails? There's Negroni, Gin and Tonic, and a straight up Martini. Negroni? I had one like last night. Gin and Tonic, awesome, Martini. Like classic dry vermouth Martini. All right. I think it also would be cool if we try to guess the botanical. And play Guess the Botanical. Two games are playing at once. Guess the botanical. I guess Juniper for all of them. Hey, y'all. It's the gin games. Guess the non-Juniper botanical. Yeah, like the, what might be the unique standout or? Yeah, yeah, yeah. I'm going with Oris Root. And Dan, it just came in with the banal. And that's how you do a cold open, kids. Hey, you're listening to Barrel to Bottle the Binny's Podcast. I'm Greg, I do communications at Binny's. I'm Dan, I do spirits. Hey, I'm Chris, I do wine. Lexi, I do social media. I'm Roger, I work in beer. And for the person who just tuned in to this podcast for the first time with this episode, download Thank You, and now we're friends. Now you know who we are. That's very presumptuous. So Gin, right? As we're recording this, we're coming fresh off of our big Gin and Botanicals event at our Marcy Street location in Lincoln Park. I heard it was hot. I heard it was good. It was a great event. We had 65 tables with a, I mean, gins across the range, some other botanical treats. And I love gin. I think all of us here love gin. And it's getting to that season where I'm going to be drinking a lot more gin than whiskey. So the Whiskey Hotline becomes the Gin Hotline. Yeah, gin and tonic time for sure. And so we actually have a lot of new or new to us gins on our shelves that are very good and interesting. And so I thought I'd bring those by. We could taste through them quickly and then make some cocktails, have some fun with them. So we're doing two things here. As we go, we're going to try to guess the botanical because that's fun. You know what Angelica Root tastes like. And then we're thinking about the cocktails that we're going to mix. So which gin is applicable for the cocktail, right? Correct. All right. So what are the cocktails? A Negroni. A Negroni. A G&T. Gin and Tonic. Classic. And a Dry Martini. Dry Martini. Do we have olives? Do we? I demand a lemon twist. I prefer a twist. Oh, there are some. I see olives. Right behind the zahine, the honey. We really have a pretty amazing- Anchovy stuffed. They have the double stuffed ones that are garlic and jalapeno. I'd like anchovy and blue cheese stuffed olives. So we're going to play a game as we taste through these. We're going to figure out which ones work in those cocktails. All right. So the first brand we're going to talk about is Tinkermans. We've got two gins from them. This is made at the Ace Smith Bowman Distillery in Fredericksburg, Virginia. How many gins are we doing here? Twelve. Okay. Let's rock and roll. So Tinkermans, we've got two. We've got Citrus Supreme and Curiously Bright. This is Tinkermans is named after the master distiller who they call the Tinker of these gins, and he plays around with the botanicals. Sorry, I'm Curiously Bright to pass it around. Curiously Bright. But do they have a tailor and a spy? Right. I was just going to say the same thing. Yes, they sure do. I didn't get that reference, and we're taking time to pass the bottle, so what the hell are you talking about? It's a book. Tinker, tailor, soldier, spy. It's available in movie form as well. Oh, sorry. I'm the library boy. Greg's a reader. I know he's a reader. I think that was for me. You know what they say, take a look. It's in a book. Take a look. It's in a book. I mean, I saw... Social media. I have a Gen Z brain these days. Greg was reading Where the Wild Things Are the other day, and also Seedick Run. Oh, you're just naming children's books. Right. I have children. Yeah. So it's plausible, but you missed on those. All right. Take a whiff. Take a whiff of this here, Curiously Bright. Curiously Bright. Tinkerman's Curiously Bright and Complex. This smells like how gin smells. Classic juniper. Yeah, very piney, almost to the point of reminds me of like a St. George terroir where they're putting spruce in it as well. Yep, yep, yep, yep. Let's pause a moment and just say the rules for gin in the United States are that the primary botanical has to be juniper and that it has to be bottled at a minimum of 80 proof. I think there's some kind of citrus fruit in here too, even though they've got a citrus. Wow, certainly. Lime, lemon, lime. Certainly, every time. Is it always? What's the fewest botanicals in a gin? One. Wow. I mean, I don't know if anybody just does one because there's like when you make gin, there's certain like when you see Oris root or Angelica root, those are what they call binders and it helps the other botanicals show in the gin essentially. So I don't know that you can do gin with one botanical, but don't quote me on it. That's amazing. Yeah, yeah. Now gin is, I mean, you know, we when we talk about gin or do education with gin with our staff, we talk about it. Think of we'd say think about it as flavored vodka. But the reality is it's much more than that. The gins we're going to taste today, the people making them are really being really thoughtful about the botanicals they're putting in them. They're going for certain flavor profiles, new flavor profiles. If you're somebody that doesn't like just a classic gin like we're trying right now, there's going to be something in this podcast for you today that you're going to want to try for sure. Well, you say classic, and it is very Juniper forward. But my guess on the weird botanical here is is Szechuan peppercorn. It has a peppery explosion. It has a little buzz on the tingle on the tongue and the lip like you've licked a nine bolt. Yeah. Is this true or is it not? I'd have to look at the bottle. It is not. But you were in the right department there. So it is definitely Asian fusion influenced. So I think what's making you think that is it's spicy. But the other Asian influence being there's ginger in here. OK. Yeah. Italian juniper. Oh, only Italian juniper. Did it say lemongrass? I think lemongrass is that where the citrus green tea, ginger, lemongrass, Italian juniper, coriander, and others. And I get the coriander. I still feel like there's this weird tingle. Well, it says and others, so it could be in there. But I feel like if they bothered to write Asian fusion inspired, they would have said, well, yeah, yeah, you would think so. It's pretty interesting, though. It's good. Yeah. I think it's an aggressive style. I mean, it's very flavorful. What's the proof on it? I think I never looked at it. Well, to that point, it's 92 proof, so it's a little higher. To that point, I mean, most people aren't sitting around probably drinking these neats, so you need it to be a little more aggressive to stand up in the cocktail. Absolutely. Well, that's why I'm thinking about it, because we are thinking about which ones will go in a cocktail. Citrus. Citrus Supreme from Tinkerman's is the gin we're all pouring now. I smelled just as much citrus in the last one. Maybe it's on the palate. Definitely on the palate. It's just a little brighter. I think it's a little bit more focused on the citrus and the aroma to me. Probably lemon peel, quite a bit of lemon peel. Italian ice big time. Peppery pop on this one too. Boy, that's good. If you're going to talk about Johnny's and their garbage beef and ridiculous peppers, what you should get from there is their Italian ice. They do have excellent Italian ice, and they have an excellent Italian beef, and they have an excellent Chicago hot dog. Sorry, Raj. Love you, buddy, but we're going to have to disagree there. Well, Roger's main complaint is the sweet peppers, and I can't disagree with them, but if you eat chardonnara. Yeah, and I don't do sweet peppers, so I'm a bad judge of that. I bring it up because much like an Italian ice after your greasy Italian beef, this is a very refreshing gin and will be great after dinner. The first ingredient is lemon peel. Yeah. Any particular kind. It just says lemon peel, Spanish orange, lime peel, lemongrass, vanilla bean. A little touch of their elderflower, Italian juniper, coriander and others. Hey Fruit Kings, is Yuzu a citrus? Yes. All right, we've got a couple of new gins from our friends at Koval Distillery in Chicago. Oh, they over... Look at this on the packaging. Beautiful packaging. Beautiful bottles. Their new series, Thresh & Winnow, they have a rye whiskey, an American single malt, and these two gins. The first one I'm gonna pass around is the Citrine Gin. Cool name. These bottles, for sure, if you buy any of the Thresh & Winnow items, you'll save the bottle and it will be your new decanter. These are old-timey farm terms. Yep. This is a pretty bottle. So it's made with wheat. I was not listening. Dust off your sides. Or something. Yeah, yeah. This is just as organic grain. Organic grain. Someone would assume a bit of corn in there. Something that needed to be threshed and winnowed. Yeah. This batch is one super cool bottle. The bottle is very art deco, cylindrical with a slight yellow color for the citrine, slight green for the foray, and it's got embossed on it a bunch of flowers and plants. It's very, very beautiful. Sticks out on the shelf for sure. I think the arrangement of the leaves on the plants and the repeated verticality of the stems evokes the Great Plains style of architecture and our buddy from Frank Lloyd Wright with the Art Deco influence too. Yeah, indeed. It smells really bright. It smells really bright. Also it smells less aggressively spicy than the last two. Definitely. I get like a pink peppercorn. These bottles are going to get repurposed big time. See people saving them as vases and all sorts of stuff. You probably make arts and crafts with the embossed glass. It's sweet and low-lying until a burstingly refreshing finish. There's some anise in there too. Oh, that's what I like. That's what it is. Good call. Yeah. That's nice gin. I mean, this one is $39.99. That was Citrine. Both of these are $39.99. Next one is 4A. Is there any cinnamon in there? There's like a sweet spice component to this. They don't list the botanicals here, but there is definitely, I mean, if you told me there was cinnamon in here with authority, I would believe you. Well, that's pretty fun. There is really a citrusy pop, like a floral citrus on the finish. Did you get some? Yeah. Oh, didn't I? I don't think you got any. Well, then I'm an idiot. Thank you, Jim, because I would have been like, yes, it tastes a lot like the citrus one. Well, by the end, we're all just going to be tasting gin, you know? I like the nose on this one a lot. Greg, I'm going to have to ask you to cut down on the banter, okay? Yeah, I'm quiet. Chris, you're stepping all over my lines, man. Chris is here. I can't get the word in this place. Forret. Forrest? Yes. In what? French. France. Oh, okay, cool. So, what do you smell? All right, smelling this one now that it's made its way around the table. Part of the reason I asked is that it's not just straight up pine, so it's very interesting, very frugal, botanical. It's hard for me to pinpoint anything, really. Green fruit, like a green melon or something. I get that, like honeydew melon, but then maybe like a Woodruff type of essence, you know? What's a Woodruff? Woodruff is a forest herb. Fairly bitter. Throw something around. The way I know it is when you get a Berliner Weiss in Germany, they'll serve it with either raspberry or Woodruff syrup to pour into the... So it's a sour beer that you're pouring a syrup into to sweeten it up and make it a little more approachable, and Woodruff is one of them. Cool. I cheated on accident. It's Shiso leafs. Shiso, yeah. We're just rocking this Asian edge here today. Definitely. That's Shiso once you said that immediately. I don't know what that is either. It's like a white- Shiso delicious. It's in the mint family. It's very lightly minty, anise-y kind of. You eat sushi, right? Yeah. You'll see sushi, shisho. Oh my God. I'm going to stop talking. Shiso sushi on the shisho? I've had that. We just had an episode with something that had- It was the sake producer's gin. Not going to lie, I think a lot of these would get destroyed in a Negroni. Yeah. I'm looking for Bombay right now. I'm waiting for it. That second one may be good with the tonic. Yeah. I think my top- My top- My top contender for the Negroni so far is the first Tinkerman, because it was by far the most aggressively flavored, but I'm holding out for the real answer. If you ever buy a gin for Negroni and the gin is getting washed out by the Campari and the sweet vermouth, just double the gin. Absolutely. Excellent idea. You can always put more gin in it. Excellent one way. Yeah, no, yeah. The next brand is Inverosh. This is pretty new to us. It's a South African brand. They use this word on their box called, they call it Cape Finbos. Finbos is the term they use for the native ground cover that grows on the Cape in South Africa. These are $40 on our, $39.99 on our shelves, I believe. You think this is required by the South African government? Possibly. It says alcohol is addictive. Sure it is. Sure it is, buddy. Gin Classic. Testify, brother. This box is so close yet so far from modern design. It looks like your aunt's perfume comes in this box. Definitely looks like a perfume bottle. What do you guys think of this gin? And even the name could be a perfume. I wear Enviroche. Enviroche. Enviroche. By Elizabeth Taylor. Super citrusy and floral. Very perfumed. But fruity at the same time. I'm just in a fruity mood. It's a fruit day. I don't know. This is banking on Lemon Pledge for me. It does have a touch of that. But it's a green juniper. It's a pine saw. Soft flowers. It's a pine saw. They recommend serving with Curl of Grapefruit Peel. It's very citrusy on the palate, for sure. This is a sugar cane. What? Sugar cane base is a rum based gin? Well, it's sugar cane based. I don't know what proof they distilled it to, so I'm not going to say it's rum based. Check out Encyclopedia Norton over here. 86 proof, by the way. Okay. I just, I could just, I want a candle that smells like this. It's so fruity. Or I just need to use more lemon pledge. Yeah. Yeah. I'm getting definite. Yeah. It reminds me. Go clean the coffee tail vibes. I was just going to say the same thing. It reminds me of polishing my dinner table. That was their classic gin. The next one is called their verdant gin. Shouldn't gin be verdant in the first place? This one's extra verdant. It looks the part. So it looks like it might be barrel aged. I love that extra verdant olive oil. How dare they deceive us? Is it the glass? Yes. I think it's one of the botanicals makes it that color. It's got a little bit of a hue in the glass itself. Well if we just finish the bottle, then we'll know. So is there, does this mean there's post distillation maceration on this one? Potentially. Lots of pepper. Lots of pepper. Still lime. Whoa. Crazy lime. That's interesting. I don't think I've ever had a gin like that. No. I mean, first time I tasted this was yesterday, and it just blew me away. Just so unique and interesting. I mean, this is screaming like just a little bit of tonic and just a whole lot of gin. Right. Because it's already got so much of that lime component. This has an aspect of that Sichuan peppercorn tickle too. Yeah. Really. But also, it seems lower lying and less like explosively spritzy compared to the others, you know? But then it's like the herbal lift, the cut at the finish of it that makes it like refreshing and interesting. Well, the finish is like key lime pie. Yes. I was trying to place that. Wow. I like that a lot. But I feel like the lime is complex. It's like not just zest, but maybe lime leaf or something. There's a- Or like lime curd. I mean, the key lime pie thing is- Yeah, for sure. Or a lime bar. Greg already made me want lemon bars. Now maybe some lime bars. Lime bars. Maybe it's time to make coconut key lime pie. I'm getting out. The next brand is Bayeb, which is another South African gin. We've got four expressions here. The first one is their classic dry. I am so obsessed with these labels. It's a that's a that's a good package design. Yeah, that's fun. That could be a tequila. It looks like it could totally be tequila. Well, these were these were guys that met in the start of this company, met when they were in school in the UK and then decided they would always go to bars and say Africa is not represented at any bar. And so they came up with the idea of doing a a gin which is very popular in the UK still. Okay, what are these flavors? What's the first flavor? What's the what's it called? I mean, it's just a classic dry classic dry. Yeah, so this would be just pretty Juniper forward. This is the on the nose the quietest gin we've had so far. It does say African botanicals though. Yes, I can't read any of them. See what I can do. Youthful eyes rescue us. Glasses. Oh, yeah. Far sighted. Juniper, coriander, rosemary, grapefruit peel, orange peel, cardamom and baobab fruit. I was wondering if that was going to make an appearance based on the name. That goes in all of them. I think that's their thing. That would make sense. This is okay. Yeah. It's okay. It's a well-rounded, mild-mannered, polite gin. Sure. Absolutely. Next, we're going to do their African Rose Gin. It is mild. It's the sweetest gin so far. There's a little sweetness up front. Rose. African Rose. I'm excited to try this one as someone who loves floral explosions. I'm excited to try the next one. We already tried. The baobab tree? Yeah, they're pretty cool. They're amazing. Neat. Looks like a nuclear explosion and filtered through humidity. Roger's pulled up a picture of a baobab tree, which is the giant classic tree that you'd see on the savanna in Africa. Yeah. I think if you took an obelisk and put a bonsai tree on top. I think it's the symbol of the PBS program Nature, is it not? Oh, that might be true. Good point. But yeah, as expected, floral. There's something in there that's sugary. Oh, I think you guys like floral, pardon me. Tastes like soap. Tastes just like little pink soaps. Can you inform us how you know that? Because I had a foul mouth in my grandma's house. I swore a lot as a child. No, this is, yeah, I mean, it's definitely floral, but I think it's very nice. This has cinnamon might be the. I taste cinnamon for sure. They also and some others, including this one, they put in some sea salt. I think it makes it pop a little. This is interesting. I see where you make you think of like the little decorative seashell dirty soaps. But I still think it's neat. I don't cocktail wise, again, I think it could be buried would be weird with vermouth, like except maybe like white vermouth. I think you really could only really GNT this. Yeah, I could see this with tonic. For sure. I think that this could be hidden within a cocktail. I don't like not one of these classic cocktails. I think that you could create something around it, but as far as classic cocktails, I don't see this being necessarily perfect for one of those. Maybe just making it into a tall like with soda water. Yeah. Oh, yeah. I could see this pairing really well with Asian cuisine. A lot of these, they seemingly have these really delicate flavors, a lot of like this to me is kind of lemongrass and gingery, and I think this would be nice with sushi and. Sure. No, it's the next one is this is Biob still. The reason we're pausing is I have a flask that is different from all the other bottles because when we were at an event on Wednesday, I didn't have sample bottle of this orange and marula flavor from Biob. And so I went to the Biob guys and said, hey, can you fill this up for me? So I have a sample of it. I'm going to top off my flask. Okay. Who are you? Orange label. Orange. Yeah, the orange one. I love this one. From what I remember, mind you, you never know. So this has the marula. Yeah. What's it called? Do you remember? Orange and marula. Orange and marula. Orange and marula. Orange, orange, orange, like the fruit. Your favorite color. Oranges, oranges. Oh, he's saying, he's saying it like in Michigan or you're saying orange. Guilty, guilty as charged. Orange, orange, as opposed to orange juice. He's saying orange. Orange, orange. It's like one orange. You're doing it too. Quit it. Well, we're Michiganers. Nothing rhymes with orange. Nothing rhymes with orange. She hides it better, but it's still there. It still sneaks through. This is another quiet one. It's like orange crush, though. It has that, yeah. Or can I say that? Orange soda, though. What, do you want to pick a favorite soda producer? I mean, it would be Diaspora. We've already been over this. True. I wonder if there's vanilla in this one, too. Tic Tacs. Yeah, orange Tic Tacs. You're right. I never think of that because I never get orange Tic Tacs. I haven't in a long time, but it really brings me back. It's a little like a creamsicle or something like that. Exactly. Yeah, that's why she's suggesting vanilla. Yeah. You're exactly right there. I think that vanilla cream component might come from the marula more a little bit, but I don't know for sure. Once again, there's sweetness here. Yeah. I think that kind of binds this brand together. Right. All right. The last biob we have is, to me, the most interesting one. It's a palm and pineapple. Plum and pineapple? Palm. Oh, palm. African palm and pineapple. Palm wine is very popular throughout Africa. It's easy to make. This is so silly. No, I love it. I love it. This is like this is definitely the gin for somebody who doesn't think they like gin. And you try this and it's your gateway gin. To a world of flavor. Yeah, right? Yeah. I love this. Remember that rum that had this exact flavor? It's crazy. It's like the... Oh, man. Flavor blasted gin. It sure is. It's pineapple. Yeah, that nose is so wild. Oh, wow. I haven't even smelled the glass and I can just smell it from the bottle. It's like fresh. It's summer gin. Yeah, it's like fresh pineapple, like super ripe pineapple. So many cocktails with this. Oh, yeah. Not a martini though. You could do some really fun... It would be a cool martini, I think, but... You could do some really fun tropical... What's that one that you like? The gin tea drink? The Saturn. I don't remember the recipe. You're probably thinking with me of the one Singapore Sling. Oh, Singapore Sling. Okay, but that's just like pineapple. They just like throw in some pineapples? How in the hell? Yeah, I mean, it's just... This and a Saturn would be incredible. Yeah, I think it's really cool. I mean, it's a gin, so it still has the gin repel, and it's got that touch of bitterness at the end, but like that pineapple just sings, and it's so different. Like, it's just nice to try something that's different, and I think more broadly appealing than a lot of our gin, because a lot of people just don't think they like gin. And the pineapple is not fleeting at all. I mean, it lingers on the finish. It does. Yeah. The herbal qualities kind of make it seem like the green parts of the pineapple. It's pretty weird. Pineapple Dum Dum. Dum Dum, yeah. What do you call me? I like it. Y'all suckers. I can't get past the dental and anesthetic flavor. This is the pre-Novocaine pineapple numbing solution. Sorry. Olfactory baggage. Olfactory baggage. The last brand we have is Wonderbird Spirits. They are based out of Oxford, Mississippi, birthplace of William Faulkner, or at least he wrote books that took place. Yeah. This is some chefs that wanted to start making spirits and kind of nerded out on gin. So we would call them culinary gins. Culinary gins? Culinary gins, yep. Culinary gins. Culinary. Yeah, okay. Yeah, well, you know, there's, there it is again. It's that Michigan accent again. How dare you say culinary? Culinary? Culinary? I don't know. Either one is appropriate. I believe you can pronounce it either way. I believe along with Roger. Well, at my age, I'm probably not going to change, so. I'm going to call this gin Absalom Absalom. So this is their dry gin. I like it. I really like the nose on this one. It's like a cherry or something. Cherry. I don't know. There's a fruity quality that we have not seen. They use rice as their grain. Oh. And so they take their approaches that they borrow fermentation ideas from sake. Sake. Yeah. So do they use a koji starter to? I think they do. I mean, it just says on the bottle, it borrows from traditional sake. I mean, I can see for sure. Totally get that. There's like a cheesiness on the nose. It's like, yeah, along with that. To me, it's like, yeah, but it's like savory. Roger made a gross face, gross face. Oh, boy. Sorry. I just this is like cheap cologne and cleaning products. It's full of sound and fury signifying nothing. I love this. Oh, I like it, actually. I think it's neat. You a Stetson man? I mean, yes, it has that. But I don't like dislike that, you know. This is dirty martini. I was going to say that, yeah. Uh-huh. Quite savory. This will go. It'll go with the olive, with the blue cheese in it. Yeah. For sure. A lot of white pepper. The Colonel would like this. Yeah. Was that one of the 11 herbs and spices? For sure. The predominant spice. Come on. This gin has finger lickin good. 30 years. Next one is their number 61, Field to Bottle Gin. Field to Bottle. Sorry, I put the cork back on like an idiot. Sorry. I like their font work a lot. I really like Futura. It's just, it's all over. The best font. I mean, for some applications. For going forward. Field Notes, books, Wes Anderson movies. All three of these range from like 35 to $50. The most expensive one, which will taste last is 50. I like this one too. I like the bottle design. It's very for hipsters. What? I'm very curious. He gotcha. Hashtag bespoke. It seems like a lot of gin, they get the coolest bottles. Yeah. I want to know why that is. As much as I've tried to look it up, I can't find it. They have to make clear spirit look pretty. Well, I think gin has that essence of being medicinal to a degree. Not like it tastes like medicine, but it's got botanicals. A lot of things, when we talk about vermouth, for example, or any amaro, the point of those back in the day was to make your stomach feel better. They have a medicinal property, so they have that feel of old-timey medicine bottles. I think it's always been associated with turn of the century around and our deco times too being so popular during the 1920s that a lot of them lean into that kind of deco-y artwork. So what sets this one apart from the last? I think that it's a little more serious, a little less fruity, the cheesiness is gone, and it's a really well-rounded gin, and I think that this one might be my pick for the Negroni so far. Sure, it is a few points higher. The first one was 82 proof, this is 90 proof. I like this, it has a razor sharp quality to it. It's more singular, pine forward. Punchy. This last one is their Magnolia, it's an experimental gin with Magnolia petals in it. This comes in at 96 proof, I think. It's one of my favorite flowers. They've been blooming all over lately. I hope everybody's noticed. I have. Down by the river. Now the Bradford Pears have stopped blooming, I can go back outside. I saw one of those the other day. Did you chop it down? I was with Maddie and she goes, oh, this is cute. I said, well, actually. You don't need to chop them down, they'll fall down all by themselves. But then they might spread seeds and crap. I like the inside of the label too. I don't know if you've all noticed that. I don't know what's happening in there. They have like something. For each of the different, yeah. Well, except for that one. Does that telegraph the main botanical? Oh. I think so. Well, this one's about faith. Faith is the bird that feels the light and sings while the dawn is still dark. That was difficult to read because it doesn't make any sense. That's a George Michael song. Well, you got to have faith. This is like, I'm getting like capers in the nose. Wacky capers or regular capers. Yeah, there's a little that kind of brined caper quality. Yeah. Like a vegetal. Yeah. It's nice. I think I would like this one as a martini. It's more delicate and pretty. What's this one called? This is the Field to Bottle number 97 Magnolia Experimental. Oh, right. Well, then, yeah, the palette is very like floral. I like gins that are more floral typically, so it makes sense. I like it. That's very interesting. Yeah, these are really new. I think they just dropped in a few stores this week, so it's not going to be at every Binny's, but if you're interested, let your local Binny's know and they can certainly bring it in for you. That has a really long finish. It really does. It's interesting the way it changes. All right, so that's all the gins I brought. So now let's let's talk cocktails. All right. Put them all back up because we need the visual. The visual cue. Born on the bias. Greg's over here chew going. All right. Here they all are lined up. All right, so I think begin the bargaining. The best for a martini would be the Wonderbird Dry or the Magnolia. I think I would vote on the way on the side of the Magnolia. Just it brings a little more interest. I think might be kind of cool. And there the botanicals kind of I think will go nicely with the vermouth. I agree. All right. Set that one aside. That is destined to be a martini. For Negroni, it's a tougher one. I'm still with number one. Yeah, the first Tinkerman. Yeah, I thought that had the most aggressive profile and had higher alcohol. I think it's the one that may stand up in that. All right. That's the Curious Sleep, right? Yeah. And then for me, with the tonic, the weirder, the better, just because we had some interesting flavors here. So I would say for me, Enverose Verdant or the Bayab Pineapple. I want to try the Bayab Rose and the Bayab Pineapple. Yeah. So Verdant was at the top, mine too, along with the forret. I would do the orange and marula. So we got to make six gin and tonics. I disagree with all these choices. I want Thresh & Winnow. Or Tinkerman. Which one? The forret. The Thresh & Winnow. Yeah. Yeah. That's my pick. We're three in on that one. Okay. Oh, okay. Forret. Okay. Great. Set that one aside, put the rest in the box, get the stuff. We'll be right back. We're making some cocktails. Go for it. I think the first thing we have to debate is, what are our martini proportions? Because people make them in many different ways. One-to-one, obviously. Like, okay. Not obviously, I mean, almost no one makes a martini that way, so. That's a joke. It's very, very old-fashioned. I mean, I think for this experiment, we got to have at least more gin than vermouth. Yes. But not too much because I think it makes a better martini. More vermouth. Yeah. So my vote would be for three-to-one. Dance one of those, wave a olive toward the Vatican or whatever the joke is. I just want my glass of cold gin to be in the same room as a vermouth bottle. It's cold gin time again. I'm of the mindset of 0.25 ounces. I think that it should be two ounces of gin to 0.25 ounces of your vermouth, and then just stir it just a second longer. Is that one to eight? Am I doing that math right? Probably, something like that. Yeah, one to eight. Yeah. That's a tiny amount of vermouth. Yeah, that's very dry. I'm on Chris's side though. I do think more vermouth is better. I mean, she's more in with the fashion. No, not necessarily. I think that may just be. So what kind of dry vermouth are we using? Dolan. Dolan. Well, that's got some pretty aggressive flavor. So how about a compromise? Five, four to one. Five to one. Four to one. Four to one. Did you want me to get what do you want to serve these in, Lexi? Just the glasses we have. You just want to pass around. That's fine. Yeah, at least for this one. Also shaken or stirred? Stirred. Come on, man. Olives or not? Olives. Will no one breathe the connery here? No. The day is mine. If you shake a martini, you have to double strain because there's nothing weirder than like a flotilla of ice chips on a beer martini. Stirring. Good sound effect. Are we not doing olives? We don't have to do all. We don't have to do them. I'm already opening them. I'll let you fish one out yourself. I think we have picks. Throw your grimy mitts in there. My hands are full of gin. They're so clean right now. You don't even know. He's been sanitized and baptized in gin. Very nice. That's a martini. This smells really good. It smells really good. It's so good. The great thing about it is the character of this gin is so clear. It shines so through in this proportion. But it makes it so smooth and easy to drink with that vermouth. Oh, yeah. That's pretty great. Yeah. I think we chose wisely on that one. That olive is top notch. And you would expect nothing less. This is Binny's brand. Binny's brand olives, please. That olive is top notch. The olive brings a dimension to this drink. I like it. So good. I just did a tiny, tiny splash of olive juice. I am 99% of the time a lemon twist guy in my martini if I drink one. But this is good with the olive. Delightful. Much to my wife's secret, I might be making martinis tonight. Uh-oh. Okay, cool. Martini is a hit. Yeah. For sure. Once again, the gin and the martini is from the good people at Koval. Lord & Taylor, Field & Farrow. What is it called? Lord & Taylor. Foray. Thresh & Winnow. Thresh & Winnow Foray. A quick reminder, folks, when you are making your dry martinis, please refrigerate your vermouth. And separate the wheat from the chaff. Okay. I actually think that olive is delicious. I don't think I've ever had this jumbo olive. Yo, give me another one of those olives. What I like about it is the brine isn't too aggressive. It allows the olive to shred through. The umami meatiness of the olive. Yeah. And also it's gigantic. That helps. It's the size of my eyeball. Colossal. Roger. Hello. They are quite large. Greg is currently using an olive as a spy glass, as if he were at an opera in the 1880s. Oh yeah. We're getting pizza tonight. Albertis. That's right ma'am. I said green. Really? Are you sure? Green olives on a pizza? Yes. Unbelievably good. Black olives on a pizza. Right? Not for me. Right? No, Kalamata on a pizza. That's a good idea. Kalamata's choice. I've never done it though. Yeah. I mean, you know that canned black olives from California are just green olives that have been treated with a gas. Get out of here. No, they're actually, this is like a little known fact. Black olives from a can of maraschino cherries started off as the same fruit. And it's just in the plant. It splits off and one is salty and one is sweet. That is a good little tidbit. Anyway, the fact is that those black olives in a can are not ripened the way a Kalamata would be. Oh, there you go. And is that also why they taste like tin? I had a friend who would take her fingers, if there's like a crudite. Oh yeah, put them all on your finger. And then she'd dip them in ranch dressing. And then, I know, is everybody else's stomachs like now? Was she eight? I was a kid. That was when I was a kid. I was going to say, when I was a child, I did the same thing with olives. You could really, these are big enough to put your finger on. Yeah. I have never seen anyone take this much care in measuring a gin and tonic. I see. I love the aromatic lift in this gin and tonic already. We're using the Refreshingly Light. Is it the Indian Tonic from Fever Tree? Love that stuff. Oh, yeah. Only 10 calories a bottle and no fake sugar. Okay. Wow. Although it still adds quite a bit of sweetness. It's like yuzu or something like that. Or what's the fruit? Monk fruit? No, I think it says fruit sugar, fructose, miracle berry. Throwing all sorts of stuff out here right now. I'm a little confused. What are we talking about? The citrus is really nice. Yeah. It's good. Gin and tonic. Lexi, what were your proportions here? Approximately. The whole thing is four, so half a bottle of Fever Tree to two ounces of roughly. I mean, I always buy my gin and tonics anyway. That's a strong one. Gin and tonic, which I fully endorse. It's Friday, I reckon. She's not making a tonic and gin. She's making a gin and tonic. Yeah. Yeah, the only person who ever was the piano man. Yeah. Billy Joel is the only one who said tonic and gin. Kind of straining for the rhyme there, aren't we? Yeah. It's like you go to one of those bars and they're like, here you go, here's your gin and tonic, and it's an ounce of gin and seven ounces of tonic. Yeah. You don't want that. In that big clear plastic cup that crumples in your hand. You can even hold it. Yeah. And there's a lime on there. How do you make love to that? Do we? I'm already getting a hangover thinking about that. I'm guessing that the idea there is that you can drink several of them. Yeah. Supposed to keep coming back to the bar school. I do. But if you're sitting at home and you don't want to get up, you're watching a movie. Make it strong. What you do is you make it really strong and then you bring the rest of the tonic with you and you add it as you drink it. There you go. Top it off. Roger doesn't like that. Well, I find this to be a very gentle gin and tonic. Would you garnish with fruit? Yeah. Lime. Yeah. Lime. Everybody a lime? I would do a lime peel, though. Yeah. I don't like fruit necessarily in a gin and tonic. I like the peel to give it that. A peel? Yes, the appeal. I want it to hit my nose. I don't necessarily want it to change the whole flavor of it. Does anybody go lemon with gin and tonic? Yeah. I don't really care for that. Sometimes I like key lime. It's an interesting variation. Maybe key lime with the Ivarose. Nobody's asking this, but keep your lemons and your limes out of my Bloody Mary. Okay. Yeah. I like lemons and Bloody Mary. Yeah, lemon and Bloody Mary adds a little pop. Meh. Yeah, what do you need, acidity and sugar? Yeah. You need a little acidity sometimes. Brightness. Yeah. Negroni, let's put this to the room. Dan introduced me to his Negroni recipe, and boy, howdy, do I like it. I really like it. Well, I think I picked it up. I mean, I've been a long-time listener of Barrel to Bottle The Binny's Podcast. What is wrong with you? And I think I picked up the idea of using Bonol from a podcast that you guys did years ago. I think it was one of your, someone was talking about Bonol, and I'm like, what is this? And I bought it. And so Bonol is technically an Amaro, or it's categorized as a Quinquena. So Bonol. Yeah. And it's basically an aromatized fortified wine, similar to Vermouth, except it's more bitter, and it uses cinchona bark, which is one of the characteristic flavors in tonic water. Yeah. So it gives it a little more cut, and it's like Bonol on ice with just lemon peel is fantastic. I love this stuff, but I pretty much subbed that in for sweet vermouth and all of my cocktails. I started doing this because you told me to, and I also like the fact that it's 20 bucks a bottle. Yeah. Which is a very good price. For a full size 750. So do we have other things like this, like Barolo Quinato? The other one that's the closest would be beer. It's B-Y-R-R-H is also a Quinquena. What about Bijole? That's going to be more syrupy and bitter, the Bijole. And more orangey. If you find the- But it is called a Quinquena. The Koki Dopo Teatro will be similar. So it's like a sweet one with a little bit more bitterness to it. I love that one too. Or like Punti Mace, something kind of like that. Punti Mace, yeah. This is just a little brighter. We should try Bonolagos on its own maybe, since we're talking about so much. But it's just a little brighter, a little more bitterness. Well, so quick question for the room. Should we have that variation or should we do the one that everyone would know? I think we should do both. Classic style first. OK. I hate Campari, so I'm all about subbing it out. I also hate using Campari. You keep the Campari. You make it extra bitter. Sorry, Rod. We're setting up the veranda. I'm not a Campari fan. Greg and I don't have taste buds anymore. It's like dirt. No, you want to taste dirt, you go with sfumato. That tastes like dirt. Oh, we've got some over there. All the stuff Greg likes. How about a sfumato floater? If you can't feel feelings anymore. I'm just over here stabbing this into myself. I hurt myself today. Other question, what is your classic build? Is it equal parts? Because I don't think. Yes, equal parts. What's your pitch? I don't think that a Negroni should be equal parts. What do you impound? Ooh, hot take. I think it should be 1.5. If I make a change, that's what it is. Gin forward. Spirit forward because I also love a Mezcal Negroni. There you go. There you go. I don't measure, per se, but I do have a heavy hand with the gin. We're saying the same thing. Same, same, same. This is not too radical because the one variation that is very popular, the Boulevardier, goes more spirit forward too. Yeah. And just to make sure that we're all on the same page, rocks, right? Yeah, of course. Yeah, yeah, yeah. I won't touch my Negroni unless it's been on the rocks for like five minutes, just to like... Where do you get the patient? Oh, you have another Negroni already. Oh, I've already had three. There's probably a beer in play. Start with the gin and tonic. Beer and play. You should come over sometime, Roger. It's a lot of fun. All right. I will go one to one to one. No timeouts for Dan. No, you can go two, one, one. I don't care. Go two, one, one. You don't need to do equal. Well, you said one, five, one, one? Okay, that's fine. Do that. Three, two, two, please. You know what? Do six, four, four. That's why I saw the line. You shot the numbers. We don't need lowest common denominators. I mean, the room's already full of them. So classic Negroni with Cokey Vermouth de Torino. Okay, thank you. So you can really smell the gin in this. Oh, yeah. That's good though. Yeah. Risky play pouring over the board there. She's a pro. I'm a professional. So Cokey Vermouth de Torino, it was my Vermouth forever. It got a little sweet for me. Okay. It got a little expensive for me. But that means that this one's going to be more syrupy and more sweet. Yeah. Nice thing about it though is that it's not too red fruit driven like so many other brews. The thing about a Negroni to me, it starts off so delicious and then the Campari just lingers and it lingers. That's right. And it lingers. You're right. I love it. Just like you're rolling around in the dirt, face down in the dirt. Before I started working for Binny's, my only exposure to Campari was the movie The Life Aquatic with Steve Zizzou. Yeah. And Steve Zizzou's drink of choice is Campari Soda. And every time Bill Murray takes a sip of it, he makes Malort Face in that movie. Yeah. It's great. Me too. He clearly doesn't like it. Yeah. I tried to drink it because of that movie. I'm like, this sucks, but it was a different me back then. I hadn't had IPA. Yeah, that's true. So on the finish on this drink, I get the pillowy sweetness of the Cokey, and I want to try the other one that's a little more bitter and more crisp. Dude, there's sweetness up front. The end is very bitter. I just taste a fluffy pillow of sweetness on top of the bitterness. You can taste more than one thing at a time, Roger. It's very bitter, but- I'm concerned about your palate. That's why. I mean, this bitterness is what keeps me coming back. It's like a refreshing bitterness that people want anymore. Yeah, like eating a lemon. Well, anyway- I mean, if people can handle this level of bitterness, it's a wonder that the old school IPA has ever faded away. This puts the worst of the worst to shame. Hey, Lexi, can we get just a splash of the Bonneau first for people to try it? Just pass it around. I think this is a very good, excellent Negroni. It's a good Negroni. Yeah, I think it's delicious. The gin is already winning. Do we want to bring another gin in for the other Negroni, or do we want the same gin? Just for consistency's sake, let's keep with that same gin and pod. Cool, cool. This has become just an absolute delight, and it is in danger of just getting consumed on its own without spirit in my house. I'm not going to hate it, Roger. No, I think if you have an open mind, to me, the wine component is very present here. It reminds me of if you took a Fino sherry and gave it a little bit of a Monteato nuttiness and then a little bit of cream sherry sweetness. It's like tasting all the sherrys at once, but with bitterness on the back end. Less spicy, less herb flavors, and more of just a more crisp bitterness. I don't hate it. I love it. I love it. When I first was buying the stuff, I was the manager on Champagne, Illinois. Go, Eli and I, I guess. But anyway, my wine manager, I got him to buy a bottle, one of my wine managers that I worked with down there. The next day, he said, yeah, it was really good. It had this underlying shrimp shell flavor. I'm like, what? Shrimp shell? Was he eating shrimp? I didn't ask him that, but I was so shocked by the- I find this to be very gentle. I mean, the bitterness is not that pronounced. Yeah. The sweetness is dialed back too. On the label, it calls out both Genshin and Kina. You might expect a big hit. Genshin can be really intense. This is restrained for sure. Don't you agree, pretty wine forward? Yeah, very much so. People like fortified wine, I think, will dig this. If you like the different types of sherry, I feel like you get the raisinated element of a sweeter sherry, but then the olive component of a drier sherry. I agree. There's definitely a raisiny, fruity sweetness up front. I think this is actually less bitter than Puntimez, which is a pretty aggressive Amaro style vermouth. I love Bunnel. It's nice. One of my favorite. Garden sick of Bond villain over here with us. I'm starting to stabbing people. They shouldn't give me the... Ever since I was a kid, they have to take away the little plastic swords and spears. Look up Spartacus. Thank you, Lexi. Thank you for making all the cocktails as well. Yes, Lexi's once again killing it. She's a whirlwind of activity. Used to be me. Let's figure out something else dangerous to pour this over. I enjoy it. I'm really glad we're keeping this episode tight. I detect a hint of sarcasm. What would have happened if I weren't? We'd be done. Hmm, much improved. Isn't it good? Bonal. Hmm, interesting. So Campari Binnys is still there, but this is so much more crisp. It is. It's like a summer Negroni. Yeah. So here's my theory on the shrimp shell comment. If you use shrimp boil seasonings and think like Old Bay, maybe that's what they're like. Because that's here or something. Yeah. Nice. Yeah, this makes it the body much lighter, less syrupy and a more refreshing style. And not to miss out on the fact that the gin is still a major foundation here and it's not, I mean, it's competing against some big flavors with Campari. And yeah, it stands up. It really... Well, the interesting thing is I think the Campari is significantly tamed as compared to the other one. The bitterness of it. That's why Roger likes it. Yeah. Are we going to get you buying Negroni ingredients now, Roger? No. I tried. Okay. So once again, those three gins, that what gin did we do with that one? Long Shadow, Arrow Hill. The Wonderbird Magnolia. Well, thanks for tasting all these gins and let me know what you thought about them. It's a gin we don't see as many new items. We've just had this rush of new ones the last several months. And it's cool to see because there's some cool flavors and some experimental stuff happening. Dan, I don't know if you thought about this. I hope that gin happens here like it did in Europe. Yeah, yeah, we were just talking about that. That in the UK, I think specifically, right? Gin was like bourbon has been the last like 10 years. Yeah, let's have a gin bubble. Let's have a big old interest in gin. Don't be afraid of gin. If you think you don't like gin, try some of these flavors. The juniper is a little more subtle because there's other botanicals carrying a lot of weight. So many people's first experience with gin is like a London Dry that's very juniper forward. And what we tried today is a good expression of how complex and different gin can be, especially even the more modern interpretations. And pineapple. Yeah. Pineapple. That was something else. But the kid's like, I guess so. I loved it. I think I'm older than you, Roger. I'm pointing at Leslie. You said the kids. And I loved it too. She's a kid compared to us. You're like one year older than me, I think. We're both old. And if you feel as old as the rest of us do. Can't relate. Yeah, okay. Had to do it. Sorry. How about those bottles? That bottle design is swinging me over. That's fantastic. They're great. If you need a summer cocktail with gin, I recommend the pineapple biya. Biya, yeah. I don't know how to say it. I just, you know. The pineapple in a Saturn. Give it a shot. South African gin was, I thought, delicious. Indifferent. Everybody drink gin. Thank you for listening to Barrel to Bottle, The Binny's Podcast. I feel like we missed the opportunity to thank one of our favorite brands, which is Fever Tree, and remind our listeners that there's an extensive lineup of Fever Tree. When are you getting, what is your check cash? Right? I love Fever Tree. I love the light one. I think the light one is such a great example of a lot of products should do this, where instead of putting some other BS sweetener in it, be it a natural one or an artificial one, they just put less sugar. What a novel idea. It doesn't have to be heavy and sweet. But there are other flavors. I don't know. They really do deserve the praise. They make some awesome tonics. Good tonic. All right. Well, if you like Barrel the Bottle as much as Roger likes Fever Tree tonics, leave us a review on podcasts. Hit me up, Fever Tree. Thanks for listening to Barrel to Bottle the Binnys Podcast. Back with you soon. Till then, I'm Greg. I'm Roger. I'm Lexi. I'm Chris. I'm Dan. Keep tasting. We did it in the right order for once.