Which gins go best with spicy foods?  Since not all wines go with all foods, we decided to use that idea as a model to expand our knowledge of gins and branch out a bit from the usual house brands of Plymouth, Bombay Sapphire and Junipero. There are so many different gins on the market these days, we really though we owed to ourselves to explore other gins in the ongoing quest to bring more flavor and better food pairings into our lives. Sounds like a great cover story, doesn’t it?

We did a variation of Eric Asimov’s (NY Times) gin tasting and tried them two ways: sipping at room temperature, and then again in a martini, with 1 olive and a vermouth to gin ratio of 1 to 6. For this round of tasting we sampled Beefeater 24, Rangpur and New Amsterdam. The vermouth was Noilly Prat (of course) and the glasses were nicely chilled. The martinis were shaken not stirred, as we like the resulting tiny ice shards and the idea of oxygenation.

Beefeater 24: The clear winner when it came to martinis. A little on the cinnamon side, but more classic and restrained tha the other two. Also, the most expensive of the three.

New Amsterdam: Citrus, mint, and a vague hint of leeks – a decent but not classic martini. The funky botanicals are a bit too distracting.

Rangpur (by Tanqueray) : So citrusy it almost tastes like a ready made gimlet. Not at all suited to the classic martini, but probably makes a fine G&T and gimlet, and it would be interesting to try it in a French 75 cocktail.

The next round of testing will be to try each of these martinis with a food pairing to see how their signature flavors marry up with spicy and highly seasoned dishes. They may not make ideal martinis on their own, but when paired with a curry they could turn magical, just the way many wines do when paired with the right food. We had a limited experimented pairing the New Amsterdam martini with a chicken tikka masala accompanied by garlic lime pickle and yogurt. The results were very promising, as the citrus-y, minty, cinnamon-y flavors in the gin that were distracting in a stand alone martini were the very same ones that blended so well with the flavors of the tikka masala and lime pickle.

In addition to food pairing test, the next tasting will compare the classic Beefeater versus its “artisanal” counterpart Beefeater 24 and perhaps one other. In the meantime, please post some comments about your favorite gin(s) and we will add them to our future tasting list.

Ok, so chez Spice Mogul we are just a little obsessed with gin. Why, you may ask? It’s certainly not the most popular of spirits. People seem to lean much more to fancy schmancy vodkas when looking for a kick. The really great thing about gin is its amazing food friendly qualities. And we are not talking a bout delicacy and nuance here as with an aged Bordeaux or Burgundy, we’re talking strong flavors and some pretty intense palate cleansing capabilities. Heavily seasoned dishes like a Madras Curry or our Bangkok Curry recipe cry out for a beverage that can keep up and not be over powered. Let’s face it, it’s hard to compliment a highly seasoned and highly spiced dish, but something needs to get in there to compliment the flavors , cleanse your palate and keep you going back for another bite. Enter the gin martini. Its cool, crisp blend of juniper and other botanicals compliments everything from Indian curries to steaks and iceberg lettuce salads (with blue cheese dressing of course).

So next time you enjoy a full flavored, spicy dish, instead of reaching for a beer or glass of Reisling, shake yourself a nice dry martini instead and enjoy an even bigger party in your mouth.