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.
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Following the advice of the Moguls, I have recently tried pairing Gin Martinis with Spicy food – both with great success (though my wife says Gin makes me do things I shouldn’t). First we went with Bombay Sapphire (6:1) up and Indian Curry. I had started out with red wine before dinner, but switched for the meal. The cold gin was crisp and delicious with the spices our friend Mary Beth put in the dish. Second, I went with Tangueray 10 up with floating ice shards in the glass at Rama Thai in San Diego (highly recommended in Zagats and by the Stewarts from Montgomery Alabama and the Cairns family from New Hampshire). We ordered Heaven rolls with peanut sauce, noodle wrapped shrimp with chili sauce and chicken satay. The Tangueray was outstanding with the shrimp and chili sauce. What was interesting was how it was different with the 3 dishes, each picking up something or adding something to the gin experience. The Moguls are right – Gin is the new wine for me when I have spicy food at home or out. Keep up the good work!!