It is just one day away, but Saturday 19th October 2013 marks the 3rd Annual International Gin & Tonic Day and you can join this international celebration of gin and quinine here.

Now, I know what you’re thinking, “DT, you sure are a little late telling us about this event.” Well, that’s true, but that’s because I only found out about it an hour ago and, with two days to go, it must be fate. But, never fear, here are three exciting drinks to try for International Gin & Tonic Day.

1) The James Bond Gin & Tonic

“Bond ordered a double gin and tonic and one whole green lime. When the drink came he cut the lime in half, dropped the two squeezed halves into the long glass, almost filled the glass with ice cubes and then poured in the tonic. He took the drink out on to the balcony, and sat and looked out across the spectacular view.”

- The James Bond Gin & Tonic: Chapter IV Reception Committee, Dr. No (1958)

This drink is incredibly refreshing and it’s not hard to imagine why James Bond ordered one of these to enjoy on his hotel balcony overlooking Kingston Harbour at the Blue Hills hotel; few drinks would have cooled him down so well after his long, transatlantic flight on the Super Constellation aircraft.

The high proportion of lime juice (equivalent to half the amount of gin) appears on the flavour profile of this drink before the familiar flavours of gin and tonic, making it deliciously tart and refreshing. When I first tried this, I thought that the lime juice would overpower the drink, but I was pleasantly surprised at how well-balanced the drink is; Ian Fleming certainly knew his stuff.

This drink has a lot of ice in it, which chills it thoroughly and makes it a great cooler. You may be worried about excessive ice-melt diluting your drink, but, in my experience, the drink is so cold and so tasty that the ice isn’t given much of a chance to melt.

For more James Bond drink check out www.tjbd.co.uk

2) GT Turbo

This is a compressed Gin & Tonic; in other words, it is made using tonic syrup. You can either use any of the excellent tonic syrups available on the market, or you can simply make your own by reducing tonic water to a syrup in saucepan over a low heat.

GT TURBO (CREATED BY PURL)

Gin, Tonic Syrup, Lime Juice, Orange Bitters – shake with ice.

A lively and delicious drink, which has all of the elements of a Gin & Tonic wrapped up in a small glass. Cooling and crisp, there’s citrus, dry juniper and botanical complexity, plus a bitter-sweet earthiness from the tonic syrup.

3) The Evans

Perhaps the only way to end that eternal debate of lemon vs. lime for a Gin & Tonic garnish is to use both! This was invented, I believe, some years back by a chap called Evan (or perhaps Evans was his last name?). The story goes that he was in a bar on a rather quiet evening and, in order to impress some of his companions, he declared that he was going to do a garnish “taste off”. Who knows which gin was used, who knows which tonic? But, so the story goes, the winner was the combination of lemon and lime.

35ml Seagram’s Extra Dry (formally Ancient/Golden) Gin

80ml Fevertree Indian Tonic Water

Garnish with a wedge of fresh lemon and fresh lime

Now, some may sniff at my choice of Seagram’s, but hear me out: it’s a yellow gin, matured for a few weeks in oak and, thus, gives drinks a slightly more mellow flavour (if you really like a woody gin, I’d suggest trying their excellent Distiller’s Reserve).

The gentle nature of the gin is complemented by the clean tonic, the slight sweetness of the lemon and the more sour notes of the lime. This is a very pleasant drink that is a pleasant to have whilst winding down after a long day.

In Conclusion

So here are a few ideas to inspire a drink or two for tomorrow, I'm sure you could come up with plenty more yourself. There's a hastag #gtday, so do please share pictures of your creations on twitter.