to think posh gin is a scam

[pisacake]

Basically it's industrial ethanol with flavourings. It's not like cognac or something where you potentially start with a good wine and distil it. It is literally just a flavoured, diluted ethanol.

So the production cost could vary perhaps £1 or £2 at most between the cheapest Asda Smart Price and the super-duper-deluxe.

And blind taste tests repeatedly pick the cheapo ones.

metro.co.uk/2017/07/27/aldis-10-gin-declared-one-of-best-in-world-by-experts-6811653/

Just marketing.

[kaytee87]

Yup and it tastes rank.

[DJBaggySmalls]

Gin tastes like aftershave.

[ShiftyMcGifty]

Not really. Alcohol has its own grades of quality, so the cheap gins and vodkas will never have the same base as the expensive ones.

[DJBaggySmalls]

Alcohol is measured by %. Its the flavouring that makes the difference.

[RosyPony]

I don't like gin, gin and tonic is vile torture water, I don't get why people drink something so unpleasant.

But it's a shame I keep close to my chest as disliking gin is not the done thing.

I'd much rather a nice mojito and a glass of red wine.

[MaximaDeWit]

Don’t get me wrong, I drink and enjoy that Aldi gin, but it came top in a specific category of gins, not all gins ever. I’m not sure if would have come out as Gold against many of the pricier specialist ones.

[LaurieFairyCake]

I don’t like cheap gin, has a very harsh after taste. I LOVE sloe gin that I make and my SIL bought me a fancy gin for my birthday that I love too. I honestly thought I didn’t really like gin until the above.

[RosyPony]

(I do like sloe gin, someone gifted us some expensive designer gin last winter... guess what I'm going to do to it! 😂)

[GrumpyOldBlonde]

I really like the Aldi gin and I have tried many brands, Aldi is the only cheaper one I will drink, It's verty nice but despite all the 'gin hype' around at the moment I still prefer Gordons above all and I think that came top in a recent comparison type programme about food and drink

[DingDongDenny]

I hate the taste of cognac - love the taste of gin, especially the new botanically ones.

We are all differnt - nobody is right or wrong, so no need to be snobby about it

[19lottie82]

pisa of course production cost won't vary between £1-2. More expensive spirits are usually small batch, hence the price. It's all to do with economies of scale.

[DeadButDelicious]

We went away last weekend and the hotel we stayed at had a wedding on which had hired a mobile gin bar thing. The whole area smelt like paint thinner it was awful. Admittedly I'm not a drinker (teetotal).

[pisacake]

"More expensive spirits are usually small batch, hence the price."

But the small batch is still based on a giant industrial batch of alcohol. They don't make the alcohol, it's industrial alcohol.

[ThymeLord]

Basically it's industrial ethanol with flavourings

Really? Is it really? Why did I think it was made from, I dunno, berries or something?

[pisacake]

marketing, probably.

It's water plus industrial alcohol plus juniper berries and other aromatics.

www.foxdentonestate.co.uk/making-gin

"Many modern alcohol producers use the grains that have been used to make corn syrup or other industrial uses like paper making. the alcohol is distilled out of the liquid in a tall column. The liquid will often go through this process several times at which point it will have an ABV of >95% and is neutral grain alcohol.

To the Rectifier

The high strength alcohol is now delivered to the Gin Rectifier

The concentrated method allows a much better control of flavour over larger batch. The result for us is that one day spent at Thames Distillery producing our gin makes enough for at least one year of sales. "

[arethereanyleftatall]

Noooooo.
The taste difference between eg Hendricks and Gordon's is insane!
Yabu.

[19lottie82]

pisa funnily enough it takes more than the cost of raw ingredients to make something.......

[Brittbugs80]

Gordon's is rank, tastes like chemicals, especially the Sloe gin. I love M&S sloe gin (cheaper than Gordon's) and Sipsmiths London Cup. Also love Rose and Rhubarb Gin by Rose Cottage.

But then I'm in a Gin club and get a full size bottle each month to try. I was sent a honey one which was horrible. They also send a mixer and two snacks of some sort!

[Neolara]

You've really made me crave a g & t. Grapefruit flavour is my current favourite. Is 4.17pm too early?

[pisacake]

"Noooooo.
The taste difference between eg Hendricks and Gordon's is insane!
Yabu."

No I agree, but my point is that the price difference between say good orange juice and shit orange juice is £2 or whatever. But suddenly if it's gin it's ok to charge £20 extra or something.

You can get a nice cordial or a nice tonic or something for a few quid. It's just not like wine where it has to come from the right parcel of land and be hand picked by French peasants and matured for years and whatever. It's just alcohol with some flavourings.

How much can we really be expected to pay for the flavourings?

I also want a g&t, but I am facing up to the reality that I just like alcohol.

[WhereYouLeftIt]

"So the production cost could vary perhaps £1 or £2 at most between the cheapest Asda Smart Price and the super-duper-deluxe."
I don't think so. The economies of scale between someone big like Gordon's and someone small like Cotswolds is huge. They will be able to negotiate better prices from suppliers because they are giving them so much business, lower staff costs/bottle, council rates/bottle etc. Many of the producers of what you are calling posh gin are very small businesses so of course their costs are higher. And Gordon's etc. can take a smaller profit per bottle when they sell so many more bottles.

Presumably you think a local baker should be able to sell their loafs for the same price that Hovis charges? Or a one-man chocolatier compete with Cadbury's on price?

[Eolian]

YANBU, but I think this applies to most branded things. I don't assume that food products are necessarily made with better or more expensive ingredients just because they are more expensive. Same with clothes, bags, cars, whatever. People will pay a lot for a fancy label, a cool advert, a sleb recommendation, and lots of people don't want to be seen pouring their friends drinks from an Aldi bottle (more fool them).

[GeminiRising]

A recent gin convert here. Lidl's Hortus gin is delicious and very good value for money! I love Tanqueray as well.

Had a try of Monkey 57 which was gorgeous and Silent Pool too.

Oh and Chase's London Dry Gin is delicious, and is made from potatoes rather than grain so has a smoother flavour.

Been thinking of joining a gin club, is it good value for money?

[baffledcoconut]

Monkey 47 is the dogs. Aldi gin is good but not comparable with Rose Rock and the like.

[Brittbugs80]

Been thinking of joining a gin club, is it good value for money?

I pay £40 a month. I get a full size bottle, a mixer and a couple of nibbles/chocolate etc. I'm thinking of changing it to quarterly as I'm running out of space to store the bottles!