New Amsterdam Straight Gin

I made an impulse buy at the Davis Square liquor store today, and picked up a tiny bottle of New Amsterdam Straight Gin. Mainly because I’m a huge nerd and They Might Be Giants saw me through my high school years. As we remember from their hit song Constantinople: “Even Old New York was once New Amsterdam, why they changed it I can’t say, people just liked it better that way.” So by the time I left the store, the song was firmly cemented in my brain.

Gin is, as I’ve mentioned before, my favorite neutral spirit, followed by Tequila, Cachaca, Dark Rum, Vodka, and Light Rum (sorry light rum, I just have yet to find a good example of you). Needless to say, I was excited to try something new.

The smell hit me upon opening the bottle with a wave of juniper and lemon. But the taste is where the real surprise came. My first impression was that this was an unusually sweet Gin… weird, considering the dry characteristics most gins possess. There are slightly medicinal juniper undertones, but they stay in the background. There is a strong taste of apple skins, orange, and pine. This is a gin with a good deal of character, but a flavor profile that doesn’t strike me as gin per se, but rather a gin tribute band whose membership is comprised of various infused vodkas. New Amsterdam has an oddly creamy yet numbing finish that leaves a bitter taste or orange pith in the mouth.

I wouldn’t make it a habit to drink this gin straight, as the name would imply, but I would not avoid it either. I think New Amsterdam gin would be best suited replacing the traditional Cognac in a Sidecar. My version, dubbed The Constantinople Sidecar goes a little something like this:

1 oz New Amsterdam Gin

1 oz Cointreau

1 oz Lemon Juice

1 tsp. Honey

Shake all ingredients with ice, strain into a cocktail glass, and garnish with an orange twist.