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Blogs / On the Table / May 2009 / Morning after post: thoughts about TRU gin

Morning after post: thoughts about TRU gin

I never gave up alcohol, you understand. I went from youthful indiscriminate drinking to gin and stayed there for years. Gin and tonic was the tipple of choice at my first wedding. In January. But—except for tequila, which isn't really like alcohol, anyway—I stick to wine. Preferably sparkling wine, for a partying drink.

When husband picked up a bottle of TRU organic gin on our last trip to the wine store on 300 West, I rolled my eyes. "That's the stupidest thing I ever heard," I did not hesitate to say. "Organic? Gin? Those two words don't belong in the same sentence."

Of course you know I'm about to say I have to drink those words now: this stuff isn't like any gin I've ever tasted or seen. For one thing, it's not clear, but a pale amber color. Of course you expect that with something labeled "organic"—if there's one thing the organic food movement has taught is it's that brown is good and white is bad. (Whole grain flour v. bleached flour; imperfect, spotty fruit and veg v. perfect, waxed ones, cloudy juice v. transparent juice, etc.)

But this gin is more than just virtue-colored. The taste is amazing—none of that medicinal quality of regular gin. (How many emails am I going to get from people saying that the medicinal quality is what they LIKE about gin?). TRU has a round, complicated aroma and a full flavor—juniper yes, but also vanilla, cardamom, lavender, chamomile, star anise...

Well, dam. Now I've made the whole thing sound like a potpourri. Or a Christmas cookie. Anyway, I suggest you try it. It's made by Modern Spirits, an outfit in LA that made its name with organic vodka, another ridiculous-sounding idea that my bad attitude has never allowed me to try.