The healthiest gin, ranked.
Gin starts where vodka ends: a clean neutral spirit redistilled with juniper and other botanicals. The base is essentially congener-free, but the botanical oils carry trace allergens and the production method matters more than the brand label.
What is the healthiest gin?
Bombay Sapphire and Tanqueray are both London Dry style with no added sugar and clean production. Tanqueray uses only four botanicals: the simplest botanical bill in mainstream gin. Beefeater is a strong third pick at higher proof.
- Congeners
- Low
- Histamines
- Very Low
- Polyphenols
- Low
- Sulfites
- Very Low
- Tannins
- Very Low
- Sugar
- Very Low
- Additives
- Low
Gin brands, lightest first
Tap any brand for full chemistry breakdown.
What makes one gin healthier than another
- ▸Vapor infusion is gentler than maceration
- ▸London Dry style means no added sugar after distillation
- ▸Higher proof reduces water cut and any glycerin masking
- ▸Watch for almond and citrus in botanical bills
- ▸Skip "pink gin" and flavored variants: sugar-loaded
- ▸Proof is the calorie dial: 40% is ~98 cal per 1.5oz, 47% is ~115
- ▸Zero sugar is the category norm, so "low sugar gin" marketing means nothing
- ▸Botanical count drives aroma, not hangover load. Strength drives both
Every gin scored on all of it
The criteria above are only useful if you can check them, so each one that varies between brands has its own column here. Lower is lighter in every column.
Swipe the table to see all 13 columns
| Brand | ABV | Cal/1.5oz | Grain-free | Hang | Load | Cong | Hist | Poly | Sulf | Tann | Sug | Add |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Beefeater | 40% | 98 | Grain | 3 /10 | 1.3 | 2 | 1 | 2 | 1 | 1 | 1 | 1 |
| Bombay Sapphire | 40% | 98 | Grain | 3 /10 | 1.3 | 2 | 1 | 2 | 1 | 1 | 1 | 1 |
| Gordon's London Dry | 40% | 98 | Grain | 3 /10 | 1.3 | 2 | 1 | 2 | 1 | 1 | 1 | 1 |
| Plymouth Gin | 41.2% | 101 | Grain | 3 /10 | 1.3 | 2 | 1 | 2 | 1 | 1 | 1 | 1 |
| Hendrick's | 41.4% | 101 | Grain | 3 /10 | 1.7 | 2 | 2 | 3 | 1 | 1 | 1 | 2 |
| Sipsmith London Dry | 41.6% | 102 | Grain | 3 /10 | 1.3 | 2 | 1 | 2 | 1 | 1 | 1 | 1 |
| Aviation American Gin | 42% | 103 | Grain | 3 /10 | 1.3 | 2 | 1 | 2 | 1 | 1 | 1 | 1 |
| Roku Gin | 43% | 105 | Grain | 3 /10 | 1.3 | 2 | 1 | 2 | 1 | 1 | 1 | 1 |
| Tanqueray London Dry | 43.1% | 106 | Grain | 3 /10 | 1.3 | 2 | 1 | 2 | 1 | 1 | 1 | 1 |
| Monkey 47 | 47% | 115 | Yes | 4 /10 | 1.3 | 2 | 1 | 2 | 1 | 1 | 1 | 1 |
Factors are scored 1 (very low) to 5 (very high). Load is the mean of all seven. Hang is the overall hangover index, which weights congeners and ethanol dose more heavily than a flat mean does, which is why the two columns do not always agree.
Calories are calculated, not copied: 7 kcal per gram of ethanol and 4 per gram of carbohydrate, with ethanol mass taken from the bottling ABV across a 1.5oz pour at a density of 0.789 g/mL. Mixers are not included; a tonic adds roughly 80 calories of sugar, soda water adds none. No gin listed here contains added sugar, so proof alone sets the calorie count.
Hover any column heading for what it measures.
Cong Congeners · Hist Histamines · Poly Polyphenols · Sulf Sulfites · Tann Tannins · Sug Sugar · Add Additives
FAQ
Which gin is the healthiest? ▾
Bombay Sapphire and Tanqueray are both London Dry style with no added sugar and clean production. Tanqueray uses only four botanicals: the simplest botanical bill in mainstream gin. Beefeater is a strong third pick at higher proof.
Is gin healthier than vodka? ▾
Vodka is marginally cleaner because gin carries botanical compounds vodka doesn't. But unflavored gin is in the same low-load tier as vodka, within rounding error for hangover impact.
Does gin cause headaches? ▾
Plain London Dry gin rarely causes headaches in most drinkers. Contemporary gins with post-distillation flavoring (rose, cucumber, citrus essences) sometimes trigger histamine-style reactions in sensitive drinkers. Hendrick's is the most-reported example.
How many calories are in gin? ▾
About 98 calories in a 1.5oz pour of dry gin at 40% ABV, and essentially all of it is ethanol. A London Dry has no sugar, no carbohydrate and no fat, so bottling strength is the only variable: Sipsmith at 41.6% runs about 102, Tanqueray at 43.1% about 106, and Monkey 47 at 47% about 115. The mixer usually matters more than the gin does. Tonic adds roughly 80 calories of sugar; soda water adds none.
Does gin have sugar? ▾
Dry gin has none worth counting. London Dry is legally capped at 0.1 grams of sweetening per litre, which works out to about four thousandths of a gram in a 1.5oz pour. Old Tom, sloe gin, pink gin and the flavoured lines are different products entirely and can carry 10 grams or more of real sugar per serving.
Which gin has the fewest calories? ▾
The lowest-proof one on the shelf, because ethanol is the only calorie source in a dry gin. Gordon's is the lightest mainstream bottling at 40% in the US, about 98 calories per 1.5oz, and the 37.5% European bottling of the same gin drops to about 92. Beyond that, every 40% dry gin is within a calorie or two of every other, so the choice is a matter of taste rather than nutrition.
Is gin or tonic the problem for calories? ▾
The tonic, by a wide margin. A 1.5oz gin contributes about 98 calories and zero sugar. A standard 5oz serving of full-sugar tonic adds roughly 80 calories and about 20 grams of sugar, so it nearly doubles the drink and supplies all of its sugar. Switching to soda water with a lime wedge removes that entirely and changes nothing about the gin.
Compare across categories
How gin stacks up against other categories.