Pink Gin and My New British Friend

1,000’s of miles from his home, a man approached me the other day asking me to make him a Pink Gin. I don’t get requests for Pink Gins that often, but when I do, the guest usually has some common characteristics, namely bad teeth. But for what they may lack in dental hygiene, the English make up in cocktail appreciation.

Unlike modern American Kool-Aid cocktail connoisseurs, our friends across the pond love herbal and spiced dimensions in their drink. Man, Mom and Dad are you sure I was born here in the states and am the product of one American with a German background and another with some other non-British European White stuff in it? Wait a second, am I freaking adopted? If I find out about my biological status because of my love for Campari, I am going to be pissed off (and drink some more Campari). Either way, my tastes aren’t going to change anytime soon, and the English cocktail perspective remains as a persistent reminder on how to utilize different flavor elements in drinks. Pimm’s alone has such widespread use and distinct flavor that we could just stop here, but my bar guest wanted a Pink Gin.

I think my British friend expected me to say, “What’s that?” I got the impression that he only asked American bartenders for pink gins as a sort of reminiscing request. It wasn’t about the drink, but about feeling as though he was English and wasn’t going to abandon his strong devotion to good old gin and bitters. He wasn’t expecting to find someone else who loves the same drink I guess, because when I gave him a nod and made the drink in front of him, while continuing my conversation with another guest. I pushed the drink in front of him and noticed that he was just kind of staring at the drink. I was beginning to wonder if I had another cocktail expert on my hands who was going to correct me on how to make the drink correctly; bartenders, you know what I am talking about. The conversation usually goes something like this:

Cocktail Expert: Hey man, can I get one of those upside down, Tequila Zinger Zwangs, cherry style, on the rocks neat?

Me: …

Cocktail Expert: They are awesome; I had one at Shitty Drinks Pub on Tuesday!

Me: Can you tell me how to make a Tequila Zinger Zwang, cherry style upside down?

Cocktail Expert: What you don’t know how to make a T.Z.Z. Are you serious?

Cocktail Expert’s Jackass Friend: What kind of place is this?

Me: Well, if you tell me how to make it, I am sure I can come up with something close if that’s really what you are set on having.

Cocktail Expert: I don’t know! How should I know? You’re the bartender.

Me: Well, I tell you what. You guys give me a chance to make to one drink for each of you, and if it isn’t the best drink you’ve ever had, you can give it back, and I will make you my very best attempt at a T.Z.Z. on me.

Cocktail Expert: Awesome, you’re on.

(5 Drinks Later)

Former Cocktail Expert: Man, these drinks were awesome! What days do you work? We are coming back here tomorrow!

Actual Cocktail Expert Who Has Tolerated This Routine Too Many Times To Count (Me): Thanks guys; let me try some different stuff on you tomorrow and bring some friends. Have you ever had an Old Fashioned?

See how this works? I was ready for this guy to say something like this and tell me how to make a pink gin the “right” way. But, this prediction was way off base, see the British have some sort of detailed cocktail recipe consensus that says how to make certain drinks. Sure, there are variations like with any cocktail, but generally some fundamental rules are followed with each British cocktail. Knowing, this I should have known that this guy wasn’t going to be a pretentious asshole. Something else must have been going on. I asked Nicole to hold on a second and asked the guy if everything was ok. He said, “Man, I’ve been living in Houston for seven years and nobody has ever made me a pink gin without asking me how to make it! That’s awesome! How do you know how to make one of those?” Uhm, because I am a bartender, and you should know how to make one!

Pinks Gins have some variance however, as they are often preferred with tonic water and/or lime. But in its most fundamental state, a pink gin is not a G&T with bitters, instead, it is made as follows:

Pink Gin

2 oz Gin
2 Dashes Angostura Bitters

Pour the gin over a rocks glass filled with ice and dash bitters on top.

It is called a “Pink Gin” because, well, it looks pink and is made mostly of gin. See, one more reason to love the Brits, simple drink names. The T.Z.Z. would never be served in a British bar. As with many combinations of gin, bitters, and tonic, the Pink Gin was initially conceived by the British Royal Navy as a medicinal treatment for diseases like malaria, seasickness, and other stomach ailments, but we know that they were just making that crap up to drink more gin.

The Pink Gin is awesome because it is so simple and has the ability to bring out so many flavors from the gin and bitters, but can we make it more interesting I wondered. I walked outside and cut a sprig of rosemary of our plant who is still really angry at me for the Rosemarriage Drink of the Week from a couple of weeks ago. I muddled a small sprig of rosemary in a glass with the bitters and a quartered lime wedge, added ice, and the gin and shook and strained my new mixture into a cocktail glass, garnished with a lemon twist wrapped around a fresh rosemary spring. The drink rocked and had such a fresh herbal aroma and taste with all of the traditional Pink Gin qualities.

I passed the drink to my new British friend, and he really liked it. He said he was going to definitely bring some of his other British friends in to have some and take the idea home the next time he visited. If you don’t drink Pink Gins frequently, take this guy’s enthusiasm for this simple cocktail as motivation for trying something simpler which can be expanded on. Just don’t be that guy when you ask you bartender for one. The conversation will likely go something like this if you are:

Cocktail Expert (Due To Reading This Blog): Hey man, can I get one of those Pink Gins?

Less Cocktail Enthused Bartender: …

Cocktail Expert: Don’t tell me you don’t know how to make a Pink Gin. What kind of place is this?

Less Cocktail Enthused Bartender: One you can leave, take your breast cancer awareness gin ass and get the fuck out.

Cocktailess Expert (Due To Not Reading The Entirety Of This Post): Uh, oops…

Man, etiquette and good drinks, what more could you want? How about trying a Pink Gin without the rocks and with different types of bitters. The flavors can really be awesome like this. You’ve got to give it up for those Brits; they really know their drinks. God save the queen and all her cocktails!