To host a gin tasting at home, pour three to five gins in small measures, taste them in order from lightest to boldest, and try each one twice: first neat at room temperature, then in a small gin and tonic. Give everyone water, something plain to eat and a scrap of paper to write on, and the evening runs itself. The only genuinely important rule is small pours, because a flight of five generous measures stops being a tasting rather quickly.
The most interesting flights are the ones you made yourself. When every bottle on the table came out of the same kit with a different botanical blend, the differences are yours to explain, and the conversation goes somewhere far better than reading tasting notes off a label.
Why is a homemade flight better than a shop-bought one?
Because you know what is in each bottle, and because you can make them deliberately different. Our Ultimate Gin Maker's Kit comes with juniper and 13 premium botanicals and makes up to ten 700ml bottles, which means you can build a flight of four or five genuinely distinct gins from a single box and still have batches left over.
That is the whole trick to an interesting tasting. Change one variable at a time and the differences become legible: a citrus-forward batch against a spice-forward one, or the same blend with double the juniper. Taste those side by side and you learn more in an hour than in a year of drinking gin one glass at a time. It settles arguments, too. Everyone has an opinion about what they like in a gin, and very few people have tested it.
How do you build the flight?
Three to five gins is the sweet spot. Fewer and there is not much to compare, more and palates give up somewhere around the fourth. Order them from lightest and most delicate to boldest and most botanical, because a heavy, spice-driven gin will flatten a subtle one that follows it.
Some flights that work well:
- The botanical flight. Same base spirit, same infusion time, different blends. Citrus-led, spice-led, juniper-heavy, and one wildcard of your own invention.
- The time flight. The same blend strained at different points. Because you taste as you go with the pipettes, you can bottle one early and let another steep on, and the difference is startling.
- Yours against theirs. Two of your own gins and one shop-bought bottle, poured blind. This is the flight that gets the reactions.
- The single-botanical flight. Advanced but fascinating: juniper plus one other botanical in each bottle, so everybody learns what each one actually tastes like.
Label everything with the tags and string, noting the blend and the infusion time. In three weeks you will not remember which bottle was which, and the tags are the difference between a flight and a guessing game.
What do you need on the table?
Less than you would think, and nothing that has to be bought specially.
- Small glasses, ideally with a narrowing rim. A small wine glass or a copita is perfect, because it gathers the aromatics. Tumblers work but give you less to smell.
- Water, both to drink and to add. A few drops of room temperature water in neat gin opens the aromatics up noticeably.
- Plain food. Bread, crackers, plain crisps. Something to reset the palate between gins and, just as importantly, to line the stomach.
- Good tonic and plenty of ice for the second half of each pairing.
- Citrus garnishes, cut fresh.
- Paper and pens, one sheet each, so people commit to an opinion before hearing anyone else's.
Pour small: a splash rather than a measure, perhaps 15 to 20ml per gin per person. With five gins tasted neat and then again with tonic, a small pour adds up fast enough on its own.
How do you actually taste a gin?
Four steps, and they take about a minute per gin.
Look. Homemade gin is often a light amber or yellow rather than water-clear, and that is completely normal. Ours is a compound gin, meaning the botanicals infuse directly into the spirit, and dried orange and lemon peel lend a gentle colour along with their flavour. Clear commercial gins are redistilled after the botanicals go in, which leaves the colour behind, and that is something that cannot legally be done at home.
Smell. Swirl gently and take a short sniff with your mouth slightly open, which sounds odd and works. Then say the first thing that comes to mind. Pine, lemon peel, pepper, sweet shop, Christmas: none of these are wrong answers, and a tasting where everyone reaches for the same three approved adjectives is a dull tasting.
Sip neat. A small amount, held for a moment before swallowing. Note what hits first, what sits in the middle and what lingers. Then add two or three drops of water and try it again, because dilution changes the balance and often reveals botanicals the alcohol was hiding.
Then the G and T. The same gin in a small glass with good tonic, plenty of ice and a citrus garnish, which is how it shows itself off best. Some gins that are wonderful neat vanish under tonic, and some that seem shy neat come alive. That is the most useful thing a flight teaches you.
How do you run it as an evening?
Pour blind if you can. Number the glasses, keep the bottles out of sight and reveal at the end. It produces the moments people remember, usually when somebody's least favourite turns out to be the one they made.
Give everyone a simple scorecard: aroma, flavour, and would you drink a whole one. Ask for a one-word note per gin rather than a paragraph, since one word is quick, honest and surprisingly revealing. Then take a vote for the house favourite and write the winning blend on the back of the sheet, because that is the recipe you will make again.
Space the gins out and put a jug of water on the table. A tasting is meant to be a slow evening, not a fast one, and pouring away what you do not want is entirely allowed. Remember too that your gin is the same strength as the vodka you started with, since infusing does not dilute the spirit, so a 37.5% vodka gives you a 37.5% gin.
Finish by planning the next batch. With 13 botanicals to mix and match and the measuring spoons to make it repeatable, the flight you host in a month can be built entirely from what tonight taught you.
Gin tasting FAQs
How many gins should be in a tasting flight?
Three to five. Beyond that, palates tire and the differences blur. Pour small measures and taste them in order from lightest to boldest.
Should you taste gin neat or with tonic?
Both, in that order. Neat shows the botanicals clearly, and a small gin and tonic shows how the gin actually behaves in the glass you would really pour.
Why is my homemade gin yellow rather than clear?
Completely normal for a compound gin. The botanicals infuse directly into the spirit, and dried orange and lemon peel lend a light amber colour along with their flavour.
What glasses should I use for a gin tasting?
Anything that narrows towards the rim, such as a small wine glass, since it collects the aromatics. Tumblers are fine, they just give you less to smell.
How strong will my homemade gin be?
The same strength as the vodka you started with. Infusing does not dilute the spirit, so a 37.5% vodka gives you a 37.5% gin.
Build a flight of your own: browse our gin making kits, hand-packed in Britain.
