The New Rules For A Perfect Gin & Tonic
From citrus oils to warming spices, the classic G&T is being reimagined at home as a more thoughtful, seasonal ritual for modern entertaining.
5 min
There is a shift happening in the way we entertain. As more gatherings move back into the home, simple drinks are being elevated into considered rituals.
The classic G&T, once a default pour, is now being revisited with fresh attention to balance, aroma, and seasonal flavour.
As Never Never co-founder Sean Baxter says: “It’s about getting the fundamentals right: proportion, temperature and aroma. Once those are in place, you don’t need much else.”
For autumn gatherings, the focus is on structure and subtlety, from crisp citrus oils expressed over the glass to mineral-driven profiles that pair well with food.
Here, Kanebridge News sat down with Sean to explore the return of classic serves and the art of building a better gin and tonic.
Q: We’re seeing a return to classic drinks in 2026. Why do you think the gin and tonic is having a moment again?
A: I don’t think the G&T has necessarily gone anywhere; people have just been experimenting more and more when it comes to finding the style of drinks they enjoy.
G&T is the perfect apéritif; it fills that moment in the late afternoon or early evening before dinner and is easily customisable to fit a wide range of garnish styles and tonic varieties.
It’s also pretty resilient when it comes to current economic pressures because it’s a very affordable mixed drink that can be prepared at home very easily.
Q: What are the key differences between styles of gin? How do juniper-forward, citrus-driven or coastal styles differ in flavour and structure?
Juniper forward gins are the style of gin that has been around for hundreds of years.
They are built using juniper, which is a small, round ‘berry’, but it’s actually a type of cone (similar to a pinecone).
These are usually complemented by root-like flavours such as liquorice and angelica root, with citrus notes from coriander seeds.
These sorts of gins (think Gordons and Tanqueray) have dominated the landscape up until the last few decades.
Some slightly more contemporary gins have started driving a more citrus-forward approach all while delivering a juniper backbone (think Bombay, Tanqueray 10 and Beefeater).
The ultra-contemporary category was born of the popularity of brands like Hendricks, which began exploring completely non-traditional flavours. The vast majority of Australian gin sits in this section.
Q: How much does juniper still define a gin today? Has that shifted with modern distilling trends?
A: Juniper still defines gin. It’s the anchor point in terms of flavour from a traditional sense, and there should still be a representation of juniper in the flavour profile, even when making a contemporary style.
Without juniper, you’re really making a botanical spirit rather than gin, and there are certainly a fair few of those knocking about.
What has shifted is the dominance of juniper in the final blend of ingredients.
Traditionally, it was the loudest instrument in the orchestra, like the bass drum or tuba.
Ultra-contemporary gin styles tend to treat it more as a component rather than a lead, supported by citrus, spice, or floral flavours.
In a good example of gins out there, it’s more like the occasional ping of a triangle rather than anything booming in its presence.
Q: You’ve spoken about “proportion, temperature and aroma”. What are the most common mistakes people make when making a gin and tonic at home?
It usually comes down to those three things that are pretty easy to manage when making a drink.
Proportion: People often under-pour the gin and drown the drink in tonic or vice versa. A good G&T should taste clearly of both.
A great G&T should be a perfect balance and not overly bitter.
Measure your ingredients. I always aim for a 3-to-1 ratio of 3 parts tonic to 1 part gin (also using your fingers doesn’t count, buy a jigger). It’s also a good thing to know how many standard drinks you’ve consumed.
Temperature: Not enough ice or a warm tonic will flatten the drink. Fill the glass properly and start cold. Always try to use cold tonic water; it affects the size of the bubbles in the drink and is often the difference between an ok G&T and a spectacular one.
Aroma: Garnish isn’t just a decoration; it adds flavour and aroma. Your nose hits the glass before your palate.
A fresh citrus peel or herb can completely change the drink. Equally, a 3-day-old brown lime wedge can ruin a perfectly acceptable mixer. Fresh is best.
Get those three right and the drink improves immediately.
Q: How do seasonal ingredients influence gin? Are there certain flavour profiles better suited to autumn and winter entertaining?
Seasonality certainly influences how we enjoy gin (and how often we head out).
In the Aussie summer months, people gravitate toward bright citrus and fresh herbs as garnishes in drinks. Think bright thyme and zesty lemon or lime leaf and mint.
As the weather cools down, we tend to shift towards warming botanicals like cinnamon, cardamom, star anise or even roasted citrus.
Some players work the whole way through like orange. You can also consider how to add seasonal modifiers to your G&T to make it work better.
I like playing with certain types of soda (blood orange in particular), paired with warm spices and a classic Indian Tonic, to add a little more winter character to a G&T.
Q: For someone building a home bar, is it better to invest in one versatile gin or several different styles?
At Never Never, we’ve always prided ourselves on creating super versatile gins that hit every occasion.
My recommendation is to always feature a classic juniper style (like our Triple Juniper Gin) as it would certainly satisfy most ‘gin fans’ in the room if they are into classic juniper character.
That being said, with the rise of contemporary gins, it’s nice to include one or two other heavy hitters if it’s something you can afford (our Oyster Shell Gin is a great citrus-forward alternative to our classic styles).
Q: Finally, if someone thinks they “don’t like gin”, what are they likely reacting to, and what style would you suggest they try instead?
Try it again. One of the most common things we get at the distillery is “Sorry, I don’t like gin, it’s too bitter.”
I hate to be the bearer of bad news, but all this time you haven’t enjoyed gin; it’s actually the tonic you’ve been averse to.
Try it with a fresh citrus soda or spicy ginger beer and lime, and see if it’s more to your liking.
Also, if your first example is one your aunt made for you at Christmas time, it probably didn’t exactly adhere to everything covered in the 4th question, so it’s worth having another go.
If you still don’t like gin after all that, we make a pretty good vodka that is winning awards all over the world.
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OpenAI has shelved the planned launch of GPT-6.1 Astra after internal tests raised concerns about deception and agents acting beyond user authorization, according to The Wall Street Journal. The company says it will investigate the issues and strengthen safety measures before releasing future models.
4 min
OpenAI says it is scrapping the release of its next-generation AI model over safety concerns that researchers raised during internal testing, in one of the clearest signs so far that agent misbehavior could stymie the industry’s rapid progression.
The move follows a summer punctuated by reports of artificial-intelligence systems industrywide going rogue, and marks a rare case of a major AI developer ditching a new release because of safety concerns.
The company had planned to launch the model, known as GPT-6.1 Astra, in the coming days or weeks, aiming for an October debut. The model was more capable than the company’s previous models in completing challenging tasks from end-to-end without human assistance, as well as writing.
The company instead will focus on improving the safety of future models, which it expects to be even more capable.
Saachi Jain, OpenAI’s head of safety systems, said in an interview that GPT-6.1 Astra regressed in two areas. Compared with its predecessor, GPT-6 Astra, the model performed poorly on tests measuring alignment, or how well the model adheres to what humans would like it to do. Specifically, GPT-6.1 Astra showed higher levels of deception: It wasn’t always honest about telling users of the actions it did or didn’t take.
Another issue was what OpenAI calls “scope authorization,” meaning that GPT-6.1 Astra would push ahead on a task without asking the user for permission, and would at times reach for external tools and services even if it might be unsafe.
“For anything regarding safety and alignment, there’s a trade off,” Jain said. “You really do need to find what’s the right line between staying within scope, but also avoiding laziness in terms of how the model actually pursues tasks even when it hits friction.”
While GPT-6.1 Astra improved in areas such as “model laziness,” Jain said it didn’t quite meet OpenAI’s bar for safety and alignment, so the company decided not to launch the model publicly.
The announcement comes one day ahead of OpenAI’s annual developer conference in San Francisco. In the past, OpenAI has used the conference as an opportunity to launch new models and services that reduce costs for software developers—a segment the ChatGPT-maker competes with rival AI company Anthropic to win over.
In recent weeks, OpenAI and Anthropic have called on industry partners to slow down the development of cutting-edge AI models and invest in safety standards, noting they will temper the pace of their own internal AI progress.
OpenAI says it is working to investigate a range of agent security incidents that it has discovered in recent months, and address the safety issues underneath them. As part of the work, the company has implemented a new monitoring system to catch AI-agent misbehavior more quickly, and started requiring engineers to use stronger security guardrails for testing its AI systems.
Earlier this summer hundreds of OpenAI’s internal agents, which were tasked with completing a cybersecurity test, ended up hacking into the AI company Hugging Face. Since then, high-profile organizations such as the Australian government and United Nations discovered that OpenAI’s agents used similar, but less extensive, techniques to gain access to their websites.
Many of the publicly known agent-security incidents involved OpenAI’s internal AI models that were never slated for public release.
Last week, OpenAI said it paused training on its most capable AI models after an AI agent slipped through a gap in the company’s internet restrictions to query a public chatbot. The company said its new monitoring systems flagged the incident within 15 minutes, and training on these models remains paused.
GPT-6.1 Astra isn’t one of those models, but a different case, the company said.
“We want to make sure our model development is safe no matter whether that’s in the company, or when we ship it to users,” Jain said. “But when we ship it to users, we have an extremely high bar in terms of safety and alignment.”
While the company decided not to ship GPT-6.1 Astra, it hopes to use the same base model to do additional reinforcement learning runs, and create future generations of its GPT-6 models.
OpenAI plans to conduct several deep dives to identify the root cause of the problems identified in GPT-6.1 Astra, Jain said. The work includes ensuring that OpenAI’s reinforcement learning environments are rewarding the right type of behavior, Jain added, though she noted the company would investigate all stages of model development.
AI companies have begun to draw scrutiny from policymakers and public officials, who are paying attention to the rapid development of the technology. Later this week, a Senate subcommittee is holding a hearing with third party AI researchers titled, “Rogue AI: Securing the Homeland Against AI Agent Attacks.”
Florida Attorney General James Uthmeier, a Republican, sued OpenAI in June, claiming that the company and Chief Executive Sam Altman knowingly released an unsafe product and ignored warnings that it could harm users.
In a motion for temporary injunction filed Monday, Uthmeier sought to prevent OpenAI from developing new AI models without third-party approved safeguards, stop ChatGPT from soliciting user engagement and limit the company’s ability to advertise ChatGPT as safe.
Tech companies claim they “cannot stop barreling forward with their potentially civilization-ending endeavors unless they are forced to do so by the government,” Uthmeier said in the filing. “The Florida Attorney General is answering your cry for help.”
An OpenAI spokeswoman said that people want to know AI is being developed safely, “and that starts with what companies like ours do ourselves.”
“Governments have an important role to play in setting robust safety standards for AI, and we’re committed to working with Florida and other states on advancing pragmatic AI policies that apply to the entire AI industry—not just one company,” she said.
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