Genever substitute

Best substitute

Old Tom gin

Use the same amount as the genever you are replacing

Best for Improved Holland Gin Cocktail

Close match

The closest widely available bottle is Old Tom gin, used 1:1, because it is softer and lightly sweetened like genever. Better still, mix 3 parts London dry gin with 1 part light whiskey to rebuild genever's malty body. Plain London dry gin on its own works 1:1 but comes out crisper and drier, so add a quarter teaspoon of rich simple syrup per ounce to soften it.

Other genever substitutes

Ranked, with the exact amount to use

2London dry gin plus a light whiskey
Close match
3 parts gin to 1 part whiskey, then use 1:1
The gin supplies the juniper, the whiskey supplies the grain weight that malt wine gives genever.
What changes
A gentle blended Scotch, an Irish whiskey or a young unaged whiskey all work.
Best for
cocktails, Improved Holland Gin Cocktail, Amsterdam, sipping in a mixed drink
This is the closest you will get without buying genever. Choose a mild whiskey; anything heavily peated or heavily oaked will dominate and taste nothing like genever. Expect the result to be slightly sharper and drier than the real thing.
3London dry gin on its own
Taste and texture differ
Use the same amount
Works, and everybody has it, but it is a compromise rather than an equal.
What changes
Modern gin is a neutral-spirit base carrying botanicals; genever is a grain spirit that tastes of grain.
Best for
cocktails, gin and tonic style drinks, cooking, deglazing
The drink comes out crisper, more citrus and pine, and much less bready and round. In an Improved Holland Gin Cocktail this reads as an ordinary gin drink rather than the malty original. Add a quarter teaspoon of rich simple syrup per ounce and dial back the bitters by a dash, because gin has less body to stand up to them.
4Aquavit
Different taste
Use the same amount
A northern European grain spirit flavoured with caraway and often dill rather than juniper, but with a similar body and a similar role in cooking.
What changes
Best for
Dutch and Scandinavian cooking, mussels, cream sauces, mustard sauces, braises
The botanicals are wrong for a cocktail, where the swap is obvious and jarring. In a savoury pan sauce or a pot of mussels it is genuinely good, and the caraway suits pork, cabbage and mustard the way genever's juniper suits game.
5Dry white wine plus crushed juniper berries
Different taste
Use the same amount by volume, with 2 crushed juniper berries per ¼ cup
For cooking only, where genever is being used to deglaze a pan or to loosen a braise, this covers the aroma without needing a spirit at all.
What changes
Best for
braises, deglazing, game, cabbage, stews
You lose the alcoholic punch and the malt, and gain a little wine acidity, which is usually welcome in a braise. Crush the berries with the flat of a knife first or they will not release anything. Fish them out before serving.
6Alcohol-free gin (non-alcoholic)
Taste and texture differ
Use the same amount
Modern alcohol-free gins carry juniper and citrus botanicals convincingly, which covers genever's aromatic side.
What changes
Best for
alcohol-free cocktails, long drinks with tonic or ginger ale
Aroma is surprisingly good, but there is no alcoholic warmth or weight, so a stirred drink will taste thin and slightly watery. Build it as a long drink over ice with a mixer rather than trying to make a spirit-forward cocktail. For alcohol-free cooking, white grape juice with a couple of crushed juniper berries is a better bet.

What is Genever?

Genever is Genever, also spelled jenever and sold historically as Dutch gin or Holland gin, is the malty Dutch ancestor of gin, built on malt wine and flavoured with juniper, so it tastes closer to a light whiskey than to London dry.

Cooking tips

Genever comes in styles and they are not equally hard to replace. Jonge, or young, genever is light and closer to a blend of vodka and gin, so plain gin substitutes for it easily. Oude, or old, genever has much more malt wine in it and tastes bready and slightly sweet, and korenwijn is the maltiest of all. If your recipe says oude genever, the gin-plus-whiskey blend is worth the extra step.
In cocktail books written before roughly 1920, Holland gin and Hollands both mean genever, not London dry. That is why those drinks can taste strangely thin when made with modern gin: the recipe was balanced around a spirit with real body.
Genever's malt lets it stand up to bitters and sweet vermouth better than dry gin does. When you substitute a lighter gin, take the bitters down by a dash and taste before adding more, or the drink turns harsh.
Serve genever neat and cold in a small tulip glass, filled to the brim. If you are testing a substitute for sipping rather than mixing, chill it the same way, because cold flattens both the sweetness and the juniper and changes the comparison completely.
For cooking, treat genever as you would gin: use it to deglaze after browning, let it bubble for thirty seconds to cook off the raw alcohol, and keep the amount modest, since juniper turns resinous and bitter if you overdo it.

Frequently asked questions

Can I just use gin instead of genever?

Yes, and it is the most common answer, but know what you are giving up. Genever is built on malt wine, so it has a bready, grainy weight that London dry gin simply does not have. The drink will be crisper, drier and more juniper-forward. Old Tom gin is a better match if you can find it, and three parts gin to one part mild whiskey is better still.

Can I just leave genever out?

Not in a cocktail, since it is the base spirit and there is nothing left without it. In cooking, yes: if genever is deglazing a pan or seasoning a braise, you can use dry white wine, stock or even water with a couple of crushed juniper berries instead, and the dish will be fine, just slightly less aromatic.

Is genever the same as Dutch gin?

Yes. Genever, jenever, Dutch gin, Holland gin and Hollands all refer to the same family of spirit, and oude genever is the older, maltier style while jonge genever is the lighter modern one. English gin developed from it in the seventeenth century, which is why the two are related but taste quite different.

What is the difference between genever and aquavit?

Both are grain spirits with real body, but the flavouring is different. Genever leads with juniper, sometimes with a malty sweetness behind it. Aquavit leads with caraway and often dill or fennel. They swap reasonably well in savoury cooking, where the herbal note simply changes direction, and badly in cocktails, where the botanical is the whole point.

Which style of genever should I buy if I only buy one bottle?

An oude genever or a korenwijn, because those are what old cocktail recipes and Dutch cooking assume, and they are the versions nothing else replaces. Jonge genever is much easier to substitute with gin, so it is the less useful bottle to own. Either keeps indefinitely in a cool cupboard.

Related substitutes

More liquor substitutes

Genever substitute

Other genever substitutes

2London dry gin plus a light whiskey

3London dry gin on its own

4Aquavit

5Dry white wine plus crushed juniper berries

6Alcohol-free gin (non-alcoholic)