Guide
Gin botanicals
Juniper first, then citrus, flower, or spice. The visit is the point.
Gin is a flavoured spirit with a rule: juniper has to be the thing you can still find. Everything else is a guest.
Citrus is the usual guest. Lemon, orange, grapefruit peel. It is why a lot of city gin tours feel bright rather than heavy. Edinburgh Gin, in the arches by Waverley, is that kind of afternoon.
Flower and herb sit quieter. If you want the gin and a single malt in the same building, Holyrood walks you through both, under Salisbury Crags. Pickering’s is the other Edinburgh still, down at Summerhall.
Spice is the one that wakes a gin up: coriander, pepper, sometimes a root that smells like the cupboard. Stirling Distillery, under the castle, makes gin and whisky in the Old Smiddy. The gin tour or the whisky tour. The castle will still be there either way.
If the choice between gin and whisky is the real puzzle, the palate finder is a kinder start than a coin toss.