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Tiki Central / Tiki Drinks and Food / Help Atomic Cocktail find Old Tom Gin & Batavia Arrack

Post #755281 by AceExplorer on Sat, Nov 28, 2015 5:45 AM

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On 2005-06-06 14:53, Atomic Cocktail wrote:
Help your ol' pal Atomic Cocktail: I'm searching for but cannot find the following alcoholic beverages:

OLD TOM GIN: There are 3 types of gin, Dry Gin (almost all gins today are "dry"), Plymouth and Old Tom Gin. Old Tom is a sweetened version that was commonly used in many cocktails until recently. It is still made in England but have been unable to find it anywhere in the US. I've found Plymouth Gin at beverage Warehouse in Marina del Rey, Ca.

BATAVIA ARRACK: Made in Indonesia, it's a rum style liquor distilled from rice and/or coconut juice. Not to be confused with Middle Eastern Arak or Raki, the anise flavored alcohol (like ouzo). I found it's popular in the Netherlands and Sri Lanka. It was very popular for flavoring punches in the US.

So help AC track down these nectars and I'll raise my glass to you while I poison myself.

2015 is quickly drawing to a close, and 10 years after the original post, we have one (or two) new sub-classes of gin --- "New World" or "New Western", and "Botanical." These are less juniper-centric than the dry gins and are currently still so new that they are enjoying a lot of attention from mixologists in the US and around the world.

Note that it is entirely possible that the "Botanical" classification may fall within the "New World" classification. I'm not certain that this has been settled yet, the world is still playing with these new gins. Check back here in 10 years and let's compare notes, and livers, heh...

For the New World classification, many consider Aviation gin from the Pacific northwest to be the standard-bearer. While I do have a bottle of Aviation gin, I can tell you that I am definitely much more enamored by our nearby St. Augustine Gin which is reported to have won a gold medal at a recent San Francisco International Spirits Competition.

For the Botanical classification, I'm not quite sure who is really considered the standard-bearer, but I can share that I have fallen in love with the Uncle Val's Botanical gin ever since I got to taste it at my very first visit to Roy's Liquors in Fort Pierce, Florida. Uncle Val's is produced in northern California, surprisingly close to the region of the country where Aviation gin is produced. It seems that great minds are cooking up good things in that part of the United States.