What Gin Should You Choose for Your Cocktails?

Overview

• Choosing the right gin is essential for creating balanced cocktails.
• Styles such as London Dry, Pink, craft, flavored, and regional offer unique botanicals and flavors that influence aroma, body, and taste.
• Understanding a gin’s boldness, sweetness, and flavor profile helps achieve the perfect pairing.
• Ralph’s Wines & Spirits offers curated selections for every cocktail.

Creating the perfect cocktail starts with choosing the right gin. Each gin’s unique botanicals shape a drink’s aroma, body, and flavor. 

To elevate your mixology, the key question is what gin to use for cocktails to achieve the desired balance. Ralph’s Wines & Spirits offers curated bottles to make this easy.

The Essential Gin Styles

The world of gin is incredibly diverse, offering a spirit for every palate and every mixed drink. While all gins must feature the unmistakable flavor of juniper berry, the secondary botanicals are what define the style and character.

Here’s a breakdown of the essential gin styles you should know:

London Dry 

Despite the name, London Dry is a style of distillation, not a geographical indicator. It represents the quintessential gin flavor profile: intensely crisp, juniper-dominant, and exceptionally clean. 

This style is made without any artificial flavorings or sweeteners added after distillation, resulting in a bold, assertive, and traditional taste. London Dry is revered for its ability to cut through other ingredients, making it the perfect base for spirit-forward cocktails that demand the gin's presence be known.

A favorite available at Ralph’s is Tanqueray London Dry Gin, perfect for a Martini or a Negroni. Its bold character ensures your cocktail remains structured and aromatic, even when mixed with bitters or vermouth.

Pink 

Pink gin is one of the fastest-growing categories, offering a lighter, sweeter, and significantly more approachable experience than its dry cousin. 

Traditionally, this style gained its hue and flavor from infusions of red fruits, like raspberries or strawberries, or botanicals like rose petals, which soften the sharp juniper notes. 

The resulting spirit is naturally fruit-forward, making it ideal for lighter, more refreshing summer drinks, spritzes, or cocktails where a hint of sweetness and color is desired.

Gibson's Pink Gin brings light, berry-forward notes that shine in cocktails like a Pink Gin Spritz or a Gin & Soda, ideal for casual or festive occasions.

Craft 

Craft gins are small-batch creations that highlight unique botanicals and inventive distillation methods. They’re perfect for mixologists who enjoy exploring bold or unconventional flavors. 

Togedama Craft Gin stands out with its creative use of unusual botanicals, offering a distinctive profile that enhances various cocktails. This gin works beautifully in cocktails like a Spiced Negroni or a Ginger Gimlet, adding warmth and complexity.

Flavored/Infused 

These gins are infused with botanicals, herbs, or fruits, creating aromatic and distinctive spirits. These gins are excellent shortcuts for building flavor in a cocktail, requiring fewer auxiliary ingredients to achieve a desired taste, making them particularly useful for making effortless, impactful cocktail recipes.

The KWV Cruxland Gin Infused with Black Winter Truffles offers an unusual and complex profile. It combines upfront juniper and citrus with earthy, buttery tones from the truffles—a perfect choice for a truly unique, savory-leaning mixed drink or an intriguing, unconventional Martini.

Regional

Regional gins are defined by their sense of place, using botanicals that reflect the native flora or culinary traditions of their origin. From the savory herbs of Mediterranean gins to the bright, intense citruses of Asian varieties, these gins offer a unique terroir. 

The Mawsim Gin Tropical Citrus, distilled in Cambodia using exotic local botanicals like Battambang oranges, limes, and passion fruit, offers a bright, crisp, and smooth Southeast Asian citrus profile, excellent for tropical-inspired gin drinks.

Matching Gin Style to Your Cocktail Preference

Creating the perfect cocktail requires matching a gin’s strength and flavor to the drink. Gin is a key ingredient that shapes the cocktail’s profile, so selecting the right bottle is essential for achieving the intended balance and taste.

How Bold Do You Want Your Drink to Be?

The "boldness" of a cocktail refers to how much the base spirit dominates the final taste, especially when using minimal mixers.

• Bold & Spirit-Forward (Preference A1): Perfect for those who enjoy classic cocktails that let the gin’s character dominate.
• Light & Refreshing (Pref A2): If you prefer a softer, more approachable drink, choose cocktails that let mixers, fruits, or herbs complement the gin.

What is Your Flavor Focus?

Next, consider what flavors excite your palate:

• Classic & Piney (Pref B1): Characterized by dominant juniper notes with crisp, slightly citrusy undertones.
• Herbal, Floral, or Citrus-Led (Pref B2): These gins highlight aromatic botanicals like rosemary, lavender, or citrus peel.
• Sweet & Fruity (Pref B3): Featuring hints of berries, orchard fruits, or subtle floral infusions, these gins are softer on the palate.

The Perfect Cocktail Pairings

Choosing the right gin style based on the desired combination of boldness and flavor focus ensures every sip is balanced and intentional. Here are six essential flavor combinations and the gins that achieve them:

Key Takeaway

Understanding what gin to use for cocktails transforms the way you approach mixology: it’s not about following a recipe perfectly, but about listening to the spirit, appreciating its botanicals, and letting it guide your choices.

The gin sets the tone—so mastering your cocktails starts with mastering your bottle selection.

Ralph’s Wines & Spirits offers a carefully curated selection of gins so you can explore, experiment, and discover combinations that excite your palate. Browse our extensive collection, or contact us for any inquiries.