I have a friend who is allergic to juniper and therefore can't drink gin. When making gin, the flavor is added as part of a second distillation in which hot alcohol vapors pass over botanicals, including juniper, and pick up those flavors as they pass, so they are present in the final product. Some people are allergic to juniper berries and experience allergic reactions including itching, rash, swelling, and difficulty breathing. If you are pregnant, do not consume juniper berries, as this could lead to a miscarriage.
In addition, juniper berry can interact with lithium, so people using this medication should avoid consuming these berries. While they may sometimes appear half-dead in winter, they are responsible for some of winter's most severe allergic reactions. Hendrick's was launched at a time when gin was beginning to disappear because people were starting to see it as “just juniper”. If you really don't like the flavor a juniper berry offers or you're allergic to juniper berries, but would still like to try something like a gin or a gin cocktail, then there are plenty of alternatives.
In an Aviation gin, juniper is slightly attenuated compared to a London Dry gin, so you can enjoy more other notes of botanical products such as lavender and orange. It doesn't take a lot of berries to flavor gin, Cummings said, so she clings to the extra berries every year. Although the juniper berry can already add many different flavors to a liquor, most gin manufacturers also add different botanical ingredients to their gin. That's why, unfortunately for people with allergies, the winter months can mean spending the holidays with a chronic cold, coughing, or sneezing.
Because Hendrick's added two additional flavors (rose and cucumber), gin truly differentiated itself from classic and more standard gins and inspired other gin makers to explore new flavors. Gin cannot be made without juniper berries, because the law requires that it have the predominant flavor of juniper berries in a beverage to be called gin. This drink is an excellent alternative to gin if you don't want juniper berries and it also mixes very well with tonic. As many gin lovers know, Hendrick's gin is one of the most delicious and unique gins on the market today.
Gin must contain mainly juniper berries for the law to qualify as gin, but you can make beverages that taste a lot like gin but without the pine flavor of juniper berries. If a brandy does not contain juniper berries or has another flavor as the most dominant one, it cannot be considered a gin. Therefore, some gin manufacturers like to test the limits of what could be classified as gin, giving gin truly unique flavor profiles.
