Botanical Families

Every gin, from bone-dry to floral, is built from a small palette of botanical families. Understanding these families lets you predict how a gin will taste before you smell it.

1. Juniper (mandatory). Piney, resinous, slightly citrus. The anchor of gin.

2. Coriander seed. Lemony, warm, slightly nutty. Second most common botanical. Adds brightness.

3. Roots & rhizomes (angelica root, orris root, licorice). These are structural: they don’t give big flavors on their own but bind and support the other botanicals — like a spice cabinet’s salt.

4. Citrus peel (lemon, orange, grapefruit, bergamot). Fresh, oily, aromatic. Modern gins often lean heavily here.

5. Warm spices (cardamom, cassia, cinnamon, nutmeg, pepper, cubeb). Add depth and heat. Common in Contemporary and Navy Strength gins.

6. Florals (rose, chamomile, elderflower, lavender). Add lightness and perfume. A signature of many modern craft gins.

7. Local/wild ingredients (seaweed, tea, honeysuckle, olives, tomato leaf). Increasingly used to make a gin taste of a place.

A quick heuristic:

• Heavy on juniper + coriander + roots → classic London Dry.
• Heavy on citrus + florals + light juniper → Contemporary / New Western.
• Malt/genever notes → Old Tom or Genever.

Botanicals are almost always redistilled with the spirit (either steeped in the pot or hung in a botanical basket for vapor infusion), which extracts their oils while leaving the neutral base clean.