Gin and Sin

It's tart and juicy and you almost don't notice the gin hiding beneath it. Such a cocktail could exist now in today's cocktail culture. It is a good way to introduce people to gin and get them sinning along with the rest of us. The proportion of juice is very high, and the drink is an attractive color.

But I'm sure this is an old classic, a hangover from Prohibition when gin was dreadful and a lot of juice was necessary to drown out the flavor of bad booze. Notice too the suggestion that drinking is sinful. You won't hear that nowadays, though.

Local to the Virginia distilling scene, gin keeps getting better. I used MurLarkey ImaGination gin with its earthy botanical blend and firm grain flavor. This is the same gin that took bronze at the San Francisco Spirits Festival this year.

• 2 oz. gin (MurLarkey ImaGination used)
• 2 oz. lemon juice
• 2 oz. orange juice 
• 2 dashes of grenadine (a little more of homemade grenadine used)

Combine all ingredients in a shaker with ice. Shake and strain into a chilled cocktail glass. 

Farmer's Cocktail

What would be a spicy and herbal cocktail turns out to be a subtle "Perfect" Martini with bitters when you use Catoctin Creek Watershed gin. Catoctin makes a mild gin that is more suited to summer drinking, whether in tonic and soda or in a Martini. Here it mattered less what gin I chose, but I wanted to circle back to Watershed gin because I've been doing such heavy-hitting American gins. While lots of distilleries are using barley and barrel aging their gins for a flavor punch, Catoctin still makes this soft 100-percent rye gin that tastes very clean.

• 2 oz. gin (Catoctin Creek Watershed gin used)
• 1 oz. sweet vermouth (Cocchi de Torino used)
• 1 oz. dry vermouth (Dolin used)
• 3 dashes Angostura bitters

Combine all ingredients in a cocktail shaker with ice. Shake and strain into a chilled cocktail glass.