When I first came to the U.S. in 2001, gin was the black sheep of the spirit family. It was really out of favor. At the same time cocktail culture was in a pretty poor place as well. I had come over to launch a gin brand and everyone told me that no one here drank it anymore since vodka had stolen its thunder.

I always think of the period between the 1890s and Prohibition as the glory days of the cocktail. That’s when the martini came into vogue and when many of the classics were invented. Back then, gin was the number one white spirit in America. When Prohibition hit in 1919, bootleggers made bathtub gin. They hadn’t been introduced to vodka yet. It would have been easier to make vodka than gin, but no one really knew what it was.

Vodka vs. Gin

When Prohibition ended, gin had a short spike in popularity, but it was clearly time to move on (bathtub gin wasn't such a good branding exercise for the spirit, apparently). The stage was set for vodka.

Vodka was introduced into the U.S. toward the end of 1930s. Hollywood was quick to adopt it, making it the new cool spirit. Smirnoff began advertising vodka as the spirit that “leaves you breathless,” implying that unlike gin, you could drink vodka during a three-martini lunch and your boss would be none the wiser. The Rat Pack started drinking it, suddenly James Bond was ordering vodka martinis and in 1967, vodka overtook gin in popularity just as cocktail culture started to decline.

But what people need to understand about gin is that.....