“Shaken, not stirred.” A classic line, for a classic cocktail–the preferred martini of James Bond, the debonair British secret agent immortalized in Ian Flemming’s novels.

Gin was first created as a medicine by a Dutch chemist Franciscus De La Boe in 1650. He was a professor in university of Leiden. At that time it was believed that Juniper berries contain aromatic oil that offers diuretic properties that can cure bladder & kidney ailment.

England introduction to gin came when British soldier returning from Netherland sampled the juniper-flavoured spirit & nick named it “DUTCH COURAGE”. The Dutch called it Genievre (French word for juniper) the English call it Gin.


If you love Old Fashioneds, Mint Juleps and Milk Punch, you might be surprised to know that whiskey and rum haven’t always been the go-to spirits for these drinks. Back in the era of Jerry Thomas and the revered career bartenders of yore, brandy was often the star of the back bar—as is evidenced in any vintage cocktail book.


In just about any liquor store you can find vodkas, rums and whiskeys flavored with everything from citrus and cucumber to cotton candy and maple syrup-smothered pancakes. But in recent years another spirit category has crept in amongst the usual flavored suspects: tequila. Flavored tequila could not legally be labeled as tequila—instead, it was a “tequila product”—until the Tequila Regulatory Council of Mexico updated its regulations in 2004.