Endangered Cocktail

The “Improved”
Holland Gin Cock-Tail

COCKTALE The gin cocktails we drink nowadays are usually built upon London Dry, but this hasn’t always been the case.
The predominant gin of the 19th century barroom was a Dutch creation distilled from maltwinecalled Genever (“juniper” in Dutch) after its most distinctive botanical.
This was the “Dutch Courage” the British Empire fell head over heels for and imbibed with such vigor it became “Mother’s Ruin”.

Real Dutch Genever was previously unavailable in the states, until the good folks at Bols decided to breathe new life into the product.They launched the original 182O recipe for this premium brand of Genever stateside in 2OO8, and it arrived in Boston this summer.
Try it in one of these and you’ll see why Genever was once esteemed as one of the four basic cocktail spirits alongside brandy, rum and whisky.