Gin & Tonic: Spain’s Obsession, Despite the Recession

The first time I drank a gin and tonic, a real gin and tonic, it was three in the morning in an old converted castle in the tiny town of La Alberca, outside Salamanca, Spain, not more than 40 miles from the Portuguese border. It was the second night of a trip with a group of well-known American chefs—Ming Tsai, Ken Oringer, Chris Cosentino, among others—there on a fact-finding mission concerning the world of jamón iberico. Leading this ragtag rabble was José Andrés, king of Spanish food in the United States and a guy with an appetite for life—for every bite and sip it has to offer—that rivals the great Sun King Louis XIV.

http://world.time.com/2013/03/01/gin-tonic-spains-obsession-despite-the-recession/