What Does It Mean to Make a Craft Gin With Women in Mind?
The recent decision by the parent company of time-honored Johnny Walker whisky to issue a limited-edition female-oriented version this month—Jane Walker—has stirred up what you might call a tempest in a tumbler. Jane, a rather foxy-looking lady in riding britches, a top hat, and tails, could be a Bond girl caught between takes, or perhaps an Avenger: in other words, she’s a hot, high-concept, and rather sexist vision. The fact that her bottle contains exactly the same Scotch as Johnny’s begs the question: Why? Clearly some marketing minds have been working overtime. Are we women being neglected, an afterthought in the clubby, masculine world of the cocktail?
Yes, says the amazingly named Dr. Nicola Nice, a sociology PHD, researcher, and brand consultant. Mr. and Ms. Walker may be offering us the same drink under different labels; but of the drink launches created specifically with women in mind, those that have emerged so far are, she observes, “really reductionist”: pink, fruity, and syrupy. “It’s the equivalent of going into a beauty store where you can only buy men’s colognes and gender-neutral colognes, and then one or two really sickly sweet hyper-feminine ones. Wouldn’t that be ridiculous?”
In response, Dr. Nice is launching her own product, a craft gin cordial named Pomp & Whimsy, to correct what she describes as the treatment of women as “second class consumers when it comes to spirits.” (Look for it in stores in Texas and New York this month, with a gradual rollout across the country.) Citing an increasing number of female master distillers, business owners, and mixologists, she wants to take back the role of women as cocktail innovators overlooked by history, mentioning the 19th-century English poet and food writer Eliza Acton, who devoted a chapter of her landmark 1845 tome, Modern Cookery for Private Families, to creating mixed drinks for entertaining in the home. Pomp & Whimsy will host a celebration of this history at the Museum of the American Cocktail’s new Los Angeles outpost on March 26.
Mrs. Acton must have been on Dr. Nice’s mind in the creation of her brand, since gin cordials, as opposed to the usual dry, piney spirit mixed with tonic water, was the favored drinking style of the 1800s. Women, says Dr. Nice, taste differently than men. “They are more sensitive to smells and can better differentiate between them. Many can be supertasters, meaning they have a larger number of taste buds and can taste more intensely.” Her own investigations into the flavors women are attracted to, how they like to drink, and what they like to mix their drinks with, led her to subtle, botanical, and fragrant notes—the way flowers smell (but don’t taste). “There are floral associations with jasmine and lavender,” she says,” and we’ve used fruits like melon and lychee.” She plans to add to her line of gin cordials, emphasizing different characteristics, such as citrus and spice, through next year.
As instructed by the good doctor, I take home the sample bottle of Pomp & Whimsy to try. She suggests drinking it alone on the rocks —“you’ll be surprised by how smooth it is”—or mixed about 50/50 with tonic. “Or try it with prosecco of anything else bubbly you might have around. If you have grapefruit juice, do one part Pomp & Whimsy, one part juice, one part tonic, squeeze some lime in it. It’s a variation of the Greyhound we call the Whippet.”
It looks a lot more golden than the Hendricks I would otherwise drink. It smells like peaches. It mingles unexpectedly with the tonic water. It’s sweeter than I’m used to, but also less heavy. It invites some experimentation to make it mine. I feel that I have neither just dismounted my thoroughbred like Jane Walker nor pulled my shawl a little closer in Eliza Acton’s drafty parlor: I am somewhere else, on vacation perhaps, sitting under an arbor with some girlfriends, figuring out new places to explore. Pomp and whimsy, indeed.
Welcome to adventureland.
