Hendrick’s is so popular that they have dubbed themselves the Monty Python of gins: all humor and fun. In 2003, the Wall Street Journal designated him the best gin in the world. Many stories circulate about its birth, but the truth is that the manufacturer noticed a hole in the market and thus released this premium gin in 1999, inspired by the habit of eating cucumber sandwiches in English gardens. The brand is curated by an American agency, but with a focus on a unique and unusual “Englishness.” The Victorian-era apothecary-style bottle bears the date 1886, but this does not refer to the gin, but to the year of the founding of the William Grant distillery. Distillation takes place in Ayrshire, Scotland, and the master distiller Lesley Gracie is, which is unusual in this industry, a woman.

Hendrick’s Gin is the result of combining two gins. One made with a Carter-Head still , the other in a small still built in the 1860s by the Bennett, Sons & Shears brewery. These are two very different distillation methods that produce extremely different gins. The 2 botanicals are macerated for about 24 hours before going through the Bennett still. Said simply they are boiled and put directly into the spirit so as to infuse it with most of the aromatic characteristics. All botanicals used in the Carter-Head are added in a basket at the top of the still. They are neither macerated nor boiled, but are as if steamed so as to extract only the lightest, sweetest and most floral aromas. Both distillations take 12 hours to complete. Once the two spirits are combined, cucumber and rose essence are added before water is added and bottled.