It wasn’t just another distillery visit on my calendar, it felt like stepping into a story. From the small hotel we stayed in, to the meals we shared, to the little towns and winding roads we explored, every piece of it felt connected… almost like the Black Forest had planned it for us. And at the center of it all was one of the most exciting gin stories I’ve ever come across: Monkey 47.

When people ask me what makes gin so special, I often answer with one word: botanicals. But after visiting the Beefeater Distillery in London, I realized it’s much more than that.

The word Gin derives from an English shortening of Genever meaning Juniper in Dutch. In the late 1580s a juniper-flavoured spirit was found in Holland by British troops who were fighting against the Spanish in the Dutch War of Independence. They gratefully drank it to give them, what they soon came to call, “Dutch courage” in battle.

Making gin is not just a mechanical process. It’s part science, part craft, and part artistry. The flavors of botanicals change from harvest to harvest because of weather and growing conditions. That means distillers always need to test their botanicals before distillation and adjust their recipes to keep the taste consistent.

Gin can be made in different ways, but not all gins are treated equally. Regulations set out three main categories: Compounded (Cold Compounded) Gin, Distilled Gin, and London Dry Gin. There are also special rules for Sloe Gin, flavoured gins, and even how single-shot vs. multi-shot production works. I will explain to you below what the main differences are between those.