In our eyes, there’s never been a better time to be a gin drinker than now (unless you were alive in England during the ‘Gin Craze’, where a pint of gin was cheaper than a pint of beer, you lucky duck).

While many of us may have grown to love gin through the classics like Gordons, Tanqueray, and Bombay - the very simple definition of gin as a juniper-flavoured spirit has led to a new wave of gin distillers in the last few decades.

There is now a plethora of flavoursome and fanciful gins on the market, highlighting different distillation styles, unique botanicals, and creative applications. Many distillers source and choose ingredients native to their areas, bringing to light many indigenous ingredients that haven’t had their chance to shine before.

Do you want to know the best part? With more complex, unique, and creative gins available, it opens up a HUGE range of possibilities for amazing gin & tonic recipes, and excellent cocktails!

Some of our favourite G&T pairings are below - but when it comes to gin, the sky's the limit for mixed cocktails. Once you’ve picked out a gin, taste it by itself, learn a bit about the ingredients, and choose mixers and garnishes that will help either contrast, compliment, or enhance the natural characteristics of your gin!

How to Make a Gin & Tonic

• Poor Toms Fool’s Cut Gin, Strangelove 8 Ball Tonic, Pink Grapefruit
• Melbourne Gin Company Dry Gin, Strangelove Coastal tonic, olives (kind of like a G&T martini!)
• Four Pillars Modern Australian Gin, light tonic, a slice of lemon
• Sloe Gin, soda, a twist of lemon peel
• Honestly, anything Australian with a lightly crushed Pink Peppercorn garnish

Poor Toms Fool’s Cut Gin (700ml), $82
Rich, classic, full-bodied gin with a whiff of grapefruit and an all-night-long liquorice/juniper finish. Perhaps best in an ultra-dry martini with an olive, a thirsty G&T, or shaken into a Last Word. Garnish with anything - this gin can handle it.

Farmer’s Wife Distillery Autumn Dry Gin (700ml), $98
Excellent gin from Allworth in NSW! Made using native botanicals including pepperberry and myrtles, alongside sugar bag honey (made by Australian native stingless bees) - this is rich, citrusy, and delicious.

Black Pearl Shower Martini Batch Cocktail (200ml), $36
A pre-batched martini made from Bombay Sapphire gin, Cinzano 1757 dry vermouth, and some excellent seasoning and garnishes. Best enjoyed in the shower, of course.

Melbourne Gin Company Dry Gin (700ml), $70
From winemaker Andrew Marks, this delicious gin is an homage to the classic London Dry style. Using eleven botanicals, including juniper berries, coriander seed, grapefruit peel, rosemary, macadamia, sandalwood, honey lemon myrtle, navel orange, angelica root and cassia bark. Delicious, smooth, and quite distinct.

Four Pillars Modern Australian Gin (700ml), $96
A true expression of modern Australia, combining macadamia nuts, red and green Szechuan peppers, fresh apples, ginger and grapefruit peel, and dry native quandong. It’s bright, it’s dry, and it’s utterly delicious.

Mountain Distilling Gin & Tonic, $30 / 4pk
A solid pour of 45ml Mountain Gin is carefully blended with their hand crafted, low sugar tonic to bring forth the sharp citrus character of orange peel and lemon myrtle with a refreshing dry finish.