“If you do not have a picture of yourself holding a glass of Indian gin on your social media, you are likely to be a social outcast,” says Gagan Sharma, creator, and educator at Indulge India. On our table were ten samples of Indian gin, and small bottles of Gin Tonic, as part of a gin tasting kit.
Last week, we got a chance to attend the #IndianGinTrail. It was a gin appreciation session that introduced us to indigenous gins.
All the socially upper-class attendees were showing off their knowledge of gin and tonic. There was also a small booklet to explain to us those 10 gins and their unique features, which helped us to remember all that knowledge. It was a beautiful and knowledgeable session.
Some of our favorite gins were Samsara, Terai, Nilgiris, Tamras, and Doja. The tastings and reveals were followed by brief introductions by Mr. Gagan, who explained their distinctive characteristics and how they were to be appreciated.
Samsara, a Sanskrit word that means ‘the world’, is one of my favorite gin from Goa with pot-still distilled and has hints of sweet, mild spice, and citrus. You can slightly mix her with sparkling wine and lemonade for the best taste.
Terai is a Rajasthan-born gin in the style of a London Dry Gin and has an in-house rice spirit base.
They were all part of the tasting kit and acquired various levels of intensity when taken neat or splashed with tonic. The hosts of the evening, Gagan Sharma and Gargi Kothari led us through a dazzling range of expressions with botanical infusions from tulsi, fennel, coriander, gondhoraj lebu, raw mango, cardamom, and clementines.