Gin’s New Wave

Sharp Staff May 27, 2019

Tanqueray & Sharp

The Canadian summer may be short, but its evenings are long and languid and — if you ask us — best enjoyed on a patio with good friends and great cocktails. And there’s nothing that goes better with a warm breeze and a gently setting sun than a perfect summer cocktail. But even the most tried-and-true summer drink can use a bit of updating every now and again — and the best place to start is by changing up the gin itself with one of Tanqueray’s variants.

Tanqueray is no stranger to innovation. It may actually be the original craft gin. In the 1830s, Charles Tanqueray first mixed together four of the finest botanicals in a recipe that would become his signature London Dry Gin. But luckily, he didn’t stop there. Tanqueray would create almost 300 recipes in his lifetime, each playing with new flavours and increasingly exotic and rarefied tasting profiles. Almost two centuries later, that inventive spirit is alive and well in the gins that bear his name.

Two Tanqueray products in particular add exciting variety to a stable of beloved favourites. Tanqueray No. Ten is a smooth, sophisticated gin made with fresh (not dried) citrus. It is, by its very essence, an ultra-premium spirit, as adept and elegant with tonic water as it is in a proper dry martini, garnished with grapefruit to bring out the citrus notes — either of which would make for the perfect kickoff to a summer evening outdoors with friends.

Or, for something slightly more exotic, there’s Tanqueray Malacca. The spirit is based on a handwritten recipe in one of Charles Tanqueray’s old notebooks, featuring tasting notes of rose, clove, and peppercorn. It’s robust and flavourful, a little taste of the East — all from the comfort of your backyard.

These members of the Tanqueray family continue a long tradition of craftsmanship — both on the part of the brand and the bartenders who use it. For that reason, it’s little wonder that Tanqueray was named the favourite gin by the World’s Top 50 Bartenders for the seventh year in a row. So in the spirit of Charles Tanqueray and his insatiable curiosity, we say cheers to summer, and the new adventures it brings. Here’s to hoping those precious patio moments last forever.