The 10 Best gins - Features - Food & Drink - The Independent £34.21, thedrinkshop.com A slow burner with a peppery heat behind it and a nice bit of coriander. You'll notice this is what bartenders in smart bars tend to use in their martinis. Hendricks £24.99, sainsburys.co.uk This 13-year-old gin has rose petals and cucumber after distillation for a very fine G&T. The bottle is not user-friendly, but that's a quibble forgotten by the second glass. Gin Mare £33.95, thewhiskyexchange.com Produced in a fishing village in Spain's Costa Dorada, Arbequina olives, basil, rosemary and thyme are added for startling flavour. Martin Miller Super Premium £32.99, selfridges.com The grains used are the best, and the spirit is sent to Iceland for bottling with local spring water. Quite floral in taste, spicy too. Monkey 47 £48.50, harveynichols.com You may have thought only gateaux came from the Black Forest, but they also make gin there, and very complex gin at that, with 47 botanicals (the average is 25). Portobello Road £23.49, thewhiskyexchange.com A gin created above the Portobello Star pub in Notting Hill, in London's smallest copper- pot distiller. Complex and fine. Bombay Sapphire £20, tesco.co.uk Bombay Sapphire's taste is light and airy, the result of an unusual process by which the botanicals never touch the alcohol, the flavours coming from vapours alone. Sipsmith Sloe £24.99, majestic.co.uk It's smooth, it's rich and it goes down with a festive ease, and Sipsmith is the first gin distiller in almost 200 years to use a new copper-pot still - in Hammersmith. Beefeater 24 £21.79, uvinum.co.uk Update of the London Dry that graced everyone's granny's sideboard, this one is favoured by lots of the bartenders as it's versatile - good in G&Ts and Martinis. £33.95, bbr.com This London Dry (definition: no added sugar, botanicals after distilling and more than 37% ABV) is actually made in Holland, and has a clean balance of flavours.