Can American juniper berries give gin terroir?

Gin tastes like juniper, and all juniper is the same, right? Not so much. For nearly all of the spirit's history, a single species has been relied upon: the aptly named common juniper. David T. Smith, author of Gin Tonica and the forthcoming The Gin Dictionary, says that at least 95% of distilleries stick to this species. Even more starkly, he estimates that there are no more than 12 experimental gin makers, in the USA and Australia, who rely primarily on an alternative juniper species.

With more gin available than ever, a veritable collection of thousands of labels spanning the globe, a different type of juniper offers differentiation from the masses. And more importantly than a marketing point, different types of juniper do indeed provide different flavors.


Source : usatoday