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Your 101 Guide to Pink Gin
What is pink gin and how does it taste? Here’s the lowdown, plus pink gin cocktails recipes, pink gin mixers, and the best pink gins to try right now.
It looks good on Instagram, and it has been a factor in gin’s transition from fuddy-duddy to fabulous in the past few years. But did you know pink gin as we know it today is quite different from the OG?
The origins of pink gin are medicinal and can be traced back to the British Navy in the mid 19th century. At the time Angostura bitters was a common cure for seasick sailors, but the taste was unpalatable, so the bitters were added to gin which created a tasty, rosy-hued drink. Eventually making it onto land, the concoction became known, and loved, as the Pink Gin cocktail.
Fast-forward to modern times and pink gin is having a renaissance – but this time around, as a bottled spirit not a cocktail – with distillers getting creative with vibrant botanicals including fresh berries, plums, rhubarb, ruby red grapefruit and rose petals imbuing their gin with a rosy colour and fruitier flavours.
So, what is pink gin?
Pink gin flavours and colour – which varies from the prettiest of pastel pinks to dark ruby – are achieved by adding fruit to original gin after distillation. The fruit bestows a delicious subtle sweetness and natural fruity flavour to pink gin, making it more approachable and easier to drink than regular gin, whose juniper-led flavour profile can be a little too dry for some palates.
Pink gin flavours vary depending on which fruit is added, but also the botanicals of the original gin. So while pink gin can be quite sweet, it can also be fresh, fragrant and surprisingly complex.
Craft distillers in Australia are experimenting with the bounty of native botanicals at our doorstep, with delicious results. What ingredients are in pink gin in Australia? You can expect unique botanicals such as bush apple in Seven Seasons Bush Apple Gin, and Kakadu plum and strawberry gum in Antipodes Pink Gin. Meanwhile, the big hitters of the global gin world are also following suit with their own iterations of pink gin.
Pink Gin Cocktail Recipes
While the original pink gin might have been a simple cocktail of clear gin and bitters (still good, worth trying), with the range of colours and flavours out there, there’s an equally wide range of cocktails to try.
Wondering what to mix with pink gin? Because it is aromatic by nature you don’t need to put in too much effort to get a lovely pink gin cocktail. Mix up a Pink Gin and Soda or Pink Gin and Tonic in a tall glass filled with ice, and garnish with strawberries and black peppercorns.
Here’s a recipe for a delicious sparkling Pink Gin Spritz that will look beautiful and strike a celebratory note if you’re entertaining.
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Sparkling Pink Gin Spritz
Ingredients
- Ice to serve
- 30ml pink gin
- 80ml sparkling wine or prosecco
- 125ml soda water
- 5 raspberries, lightly crushed
- Slice of lime to serve
- Mint sprigs to serve
- Raspberries, extra to serve
Method
- Half fill a large glass with ice cubes. Pour over the pink gin and sparkling wine. Stir with a long spoon. Add soda water and raspberries.
- Garnish with lime, mint and extra raspberries. Serve.
Tip: if you prefer your pink gin fizz a little sweeter, swap out the soda water for lemonade or half soda and half lemonade.
The Best Pink Gins to Try Now
If you’re ready to think pink, here are some of the best pink gins that taste as good as they look, available in Liquorland stores:
Gordon’s Pink Gin has a crisp signature juniper flavour, softened and sweetened with the authentic taste of strawberry, raspberry and refreshing tang of redcurrant. This is the ideal pink gin for those who like a slightly sweeter gin and tonic.
Manly Spirits Lilly Pilly Pink Gin is crafted in the Northern Beaches of Sydney and flavoured with the vibrant summer berries of the native lilly pilly, along with edible pink dune daisies. With no added sugar, it’s less sweet than other pink gins and has a dry finish with berry and citrus undertones.
Mayfair Pink Gin is a light and refreshing pink gin, handcrafted using a traditional recipe. Expect the distinctive and fragrant flavours of ripe strawberries, raspberries and blackcurrants, finishing with a familiar hint of juniper.
Beefeater Pink Ginis distilled in London using the original Beefeater London Dry recipe, infused with natural strawberry flavour and colour. Aromatic botanicals include lemon peel, bitter almond, liquorice, and coriander.
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