Clear tonic

Your city can tell me a lot based on its relationship to gin. London kind of tucks gin under the rug, not wanting to admit its colonialist history, preferring to focus on beer. Gin-mad ex-colony Hong Kong is the opposite, with multiple gin bars showing off with strong Japanese influences. Some American cities have great gin bars; ours is one. Copenhagen does aquavit, a gin-adjacent Danish spirit, usually drank straight with smørrebrød. Amsterdam, not wanting to admit that it’s more like Copenhagen than any other city, does both gin and aquavit, depending on where you find yourself. Stockholm will look at you funny and pour you more scotch.

And then there is Barcelona, which never got the memo about how other cities have ever done gin, and yet is perhaps the greatest gin culture on the planet right now. This speaks to what Barcelona really is: distinct, independent, with a thought-through quality of life that is not apparent in much of the rest of Europe.

Yes, you could put that gin in a cocktail. But you are not really going to do that. The real answer is to get 8oz of tonic, 1.5oz of gin, and a garnish, and to put everything together in a red wine goblet the size of a Chicago softball, filled to the top with clear 1” cubes of ice.

This is it. We have arrived at the apotheosis of gin.