JUNE 2019 | MARKETWATCHMAG.COM | MARKET WATCH 49Cocktails Court Consumers
No matter the size of the brand, many gin
labels are benefiting from exposure in cock-
tail bars, as appreciation from mixologists
shows no signs of slowing. In recent years, a
number of brands have positioned them-
selves as cocktail-exclusive gins in an effort
to capitalize on this trend. One such label
operating under the cocktail gin moniker is
Fords, which rebranded itself—and became
its own company, The Fords Gin Co.—earlier
this year after separating from The 86 Co.
portfolio. “From the very beginning, we
created our gin with the input of bartenders,
so we could offer an expression that would
work well in classic cocktails,” says Fords
Gin founder and CEO Simon Ford. “We’ve
developed a gin that’s made to put behind
the bar. Our belief is that when it comes to
gin, the end product isn’t what’s in the
bottle—it’s the drink that the bartender
makes with it.” Earlier this year, Fords
launched Officers’ Reserve, a small-batch
gin made for inclusion in specialty cocktails
that has an initial run of 2,000 cases. Offi-
cers’ Reserve joins the flagship London Dry
gin, which, according to Ford, has seen
consistent year-on-year growth since its
launch in 2013 and now stands at almost
31,000 cases.
Elsewhere, Greenhook Ginsmiths’ DeAn-
gelo created the distillery’s Old Tom gin
with the Martinez cocktail—a gin-based
Manhattan—in mind, with about 80% of
the expression’s business in restaurant and
bar accounts. “This gin is perfect in a lot of
pre-Prohibition cocktails,” DeAngelo says.
“It’s nice in Old Fashioneds, and it goes well
in warm weather drinks.” He adds that the
distillery’s Beach Plum gin liqueur works
well in sour-style drinks like Gimlets,
though the offering’s on- and off-premise
distribution is more evenly split than that
of the Old Tom.
Greenhook is particularly bullish on the classic Gin & Tonic
cocktail; to that end, DeAngelo recently innovated in the RTD
sphere with a line of canned Gin & Tonics ($21 a 4-pack of
200-ml. cans), which rolled across the distillery’s distribution foot-
print this past spring. “I decided to launch our Gin & Tonic
because, as an American gin producer and consumer, I was
frustrated with the quality of Gin & Tonic cocktails here, espe-
cially when 90% of gin in the world is consumed with tonic,”
DeAngelo says, pointing to the subpar, flat tonics often used in
stateside iterations of the drink. “If you go to England and order
a Gin & Tonic at any pub, you’re going to get a high-quality,
consistently carbonated tonic, which is what we need here.”
The Greenhook Gin & Tonic comprises one part Ameri-
can Dry gin and two parts proprietary tonic developed by
DeAngelo. Instead of solely carbonating the tonic, Greenhook
carbonates the gin and tonic together in a pressure tank,
which, according to DeAngelo, results in 26% more carbon-
ation than a typical Gin & Tonic. Eventually, Greenhook may
offer its tonic as a stand-alone product as well.
DeAngelo isn’t alone in championing the Gin & Tonic—and
especially high-quality tonic—as a way of reaching a wider
consumer base in the U.S. In Alberta, Canada’s Turner Valley,
Eau Claire Distillery has also created its own tonic. “We’re not
going to sacrifice our gin with a lower-quality tonic water orAt Sipsmith Distillery (pictured above) in London, founders (top, from left) Jared Brown,
Sam Galsworthy, and Fairfax Hall have found success through their fresh approach
to the gin category, which includes innovating on the basic Gin & Tonic formula.