The gin and tonic is about as classic as it gets when it comes to cocktails. Everyone has had a gin and tonic and for some reason, it seems to be a very love or hate cocktail. Either you like the taste of gin or you don’t. There seems to be very little in between. It’s either “Ooooooh gin…” or “ewwwww gin!” The older I get, the more I fall into the “love” group.
Whenever I talk about gin, I always think of that scene in Rounders when Michael sits down with Prof. Petrovsky and they talk about how “our destiny chooses us.” And what was Prof. Petrosky drinking…
Anyway, the gin and tonic has been around since the early 1900’s. The back story is actually kind of interesting. I found this info on Wikipedia, so take it for what it’s worth. Quinine gives tonic that bitter taste and it was also used to prevent malaria back in the day. The story goes that while in India a few British soldiers were sitting around drinking their quinine and someone decided to add some gin to make it taste better. And BOOM, the gin and tonic was born. I’m not sure if that’s true, but it seems as plausible as any other cocktail origin story. And I kind of like the idea of a cocktail being born out of necessity.
A basic gin and tonic consists of just that, gin and tonic. Personally, I don’t measure out the ingredients when I make a regular G&T. I just pour gin until it looks right, then I add in some tonic until it looks right, then I add more of one or the other until it tastes right. I eyeball it. When it comes to garnish, I usually go with a lime. I’m a big fan of the lime. But we’re not here to talk about a basic G&T, are we?
The Spiced Grapefruit Gin and Tonic is not a basic G&T. There is a lot going on with the flavor and there are a few more ingredients, but it’s still pretty simple to make. The idea for this drink was born after a nice dinner at The Cooperage in Lafayette, CA. They are known for their G&T’s and Dana ordered the “Spanish” which featured gin, grapefruit, rosemary, juniper berries and tonic. It was quite tasty. So tasty that we both wanted one the next day and decided to try and duplicate it at home.
We went down the list of ingredients and were all smiles until we got to juniper berries.
Who has juniper berries in their cupboard?
Do you?
We don’t and we have all kinds of random stuff in there.
So we swapped in cardamom pods. Yes, cardamom pods.
Go to your spice rack and take a whiff of the cardamom. It has that bright herbal smell that you get from gin. It seemed like a natural fit, so we gave it a shot. And, as you can probably guess because we took the time to take pictures and do a write up about it, it was damn good.
Ingredients
- 2 oz Gin - I've used Tanqueray and Bombay Saphire and enjoyed both
- 4 oz Tonic
- .25 oz Fresh Grapefruit juice
- 1 slice Grapefruit
- 4 Cardamon Pods (lightly crushed)
- 1 Sprig Rosemary
Instructions
- Lightly crush the cardamom pods with a muddler or the back of a spoon. You don't want to pulverize them, just apply enough pressure to break the pods open.
- Slap the rosemary against your wrist (or on the inside of the glass, but be sure not to cause any destruction) to release the oils.
- Squeeze a bit of grapefruit juice into the glass. I know I said .25 oz, but a good squeeze will do the trick.
- Add crushed cardamom pods, rosemary, gin and ice to the glass and give it a decent stir.
- Add tonic over the ice.
- Sip.
- Shout expletives in enjoyment.
- Sip.
- Repeat.
