The POWER of the garnish

Whilst an enormous amount of work goes into explaining the intricacies of distilling gins and pairing with various tonics or other mixers, the garnish often remains an afterthought - but it shouldn’t. As a Masons customer, we know you’re investing in the quality of the gin you drink, so pay attention - the garnish really matters.

How did we find this out? Well, let me take you back to 2011/12. Karl & Cathy were exploring their way around the world of gins via the Gin & Tonic Friday social media pages Karl created, when they decided to visit the London Gin Club in Soho.

Here they met a wonderful lady called Julia. Julia was a fountain of knowledge of all things gin, and as well as introducing Karl & Cathy to some great new gins, they noticed each one was served with a totally different garnish. Nothing unusual in that, until Karl tried a particular gin he’d had a home and not loved, but here, served with a totally different garnish it was stunning.

It was one of those moments when the importance of the garnish hits you in the face – the garnish can totally change the character of a G&T or cocktail. A garnish can highlight flavours in the gin, it can contrast to complement flavours. It all about matching the right garnish to your botanicals.

Have you a bottle of Masons Original? If so, try this. Make 2 identical G&T’s but garnish one with the zest of an orange, garnish the other with the zest of a pink grapefruit and give the pepper grinder a twist over the second drink. What do you get? Two totally different tasting G&T’s.

• The first with orange is sweet and smooth as the citrus is working with the orange in the recipe as a botanical – this is Cathy’s favourite serve.
• The second is far drier and thirst quenching, and it’s all because the pink grapefruit is moving the balance from the herbaceous botanicals such as cardamom, Szechuan pepper and bay leaf in the recipe towards the dry juniper, while the black pepper complements the herbaceous botanicals – and this is Karl’s favourite serve.

For the rest of our range, we experimented which is always fun. We have our recommendations, but everyone has different taste, so why not experiment yourselves? You’ll be amazed how much of a difference it can make.

Remember – how you serve your gin is a very personal choice and you will know what you like, but we do hope this has lent some inspiration when it comes to making your next Masons G&T. Feel free to share with us any different garnishes or variations you have tried – we always love hearing from you, and check out the rest of our recommendations on out website.

Share your perfect serves with us on Facebook or Instagram at @masonsofyorkshire

Best wishes,

Karl & Cathy Mason