Mother would always jokingly say that she would have a Pink Gin if asked what she wanted to drink. I didn't think too much about it until, years later, I was celebrating a birthday in the American Bar of the Savoy in London and saw Pink Gin on the menu. Further reading suggested that it had been a favourite of Royal Navy personnel during WWII and things fell into place. My father had been RN, my uncle had been Assistant Manager at the Savoy and my mother had lived in London during the war and I guess they probably had a drink or two in the bar. I did have a couple of Pink Gins to remember them all. Very nice too.

John Le Carré fans: You may remember when George Smiley goes on a drinking binge with Jerry Westerby to get him to “spill.” Jerry’s drink of choice is a Pink Gin, and understanding that he seems to swill them all day, we understand his drinking state of mind. “Pink Gin” also figures quite a bit in Somerset Maugham novels, where it’s the only thing to cut the Malaysian heat.

This is great to test the quality of your gin. If it's still noticable after the addition of sugar (or gomme) and the bitters, it's a good gin. A nice long stir (60 seconds), or shaking, gives enough dilution without having to add water, works fine in my view.

Made with just London dry gin and bitters, no garnish. Considering its history, I think building it in an ice-filled old fashioned glass will works.

Had this with just gin and angostura bitters

Curious story re the titling, as I was introduced to ‘pink gin’ I would say around year 2000 (but hard to recollect exactly) by a bartender at the Australian National University, Canberra. It was a pink G&T as described above. The bartender was an Englishman who had previously worked in some old former colonial outpost such as Singapore or Hong Kong, and recounted his customers rolling up after work to order “a laaarge pink gin”!

Interesting. I always had it without any sugar. The little drop adds a roundness to it (as one would expect).