We’re long overdue for a Gin Tasting Note, Vacation Week Edition, which allowed me to languidly stroll the city’s new liquor megastore & line up the latest contestants. Today we have Broker’s London Dry Gin, a London import sporting an adorable English bowler hat on its cap & boasting to be the “best gin in the world,” based on a 2010 NY taste test. I hold the results of this test in strong skepticism, being as they placed Scotland’s Hendrick’s Gin in 6th place, only one spot above New Amsterdam – the cloying, biteless king of the 3rd shelf in liquor stores. Anyone with half a tongue knows that Hendrick’s tastes like fairy magic in your mouth. Anyway. While not a # 1, they were definitely on to something, as Broker’s manages to combine the personality of the “new” gin style (smooth sweetness) with the old London dry gin’s kick to the throat that keeps you on your toes. It’s lightly reminiscent of Bombay’s Sapphire, without Sapphire’s schizophrenia. Overall, a sipping gin – good enough to drink neat, with a strong enough personality to give you something to ponder. In a 4:1 clean martini, it produces a surprisingly savory afternote that imitates an olive. In a dirty martini, you may want to add some extra dirt, because this gin absorbs brine while pushing its high notes higher. I ended up adding 3x the brine for it to taste properly dirty.