The whole and its parts

The whole & its parts

Gin and early adopters

Our hosts both liked Gin and were inviting us to taste one of the many kinds they had on offer.

A guest who had not yet tried Gin became curious and decided to taste one. Instead of going all the way have a gin mixed for him, he stayed in his comfort zone by tasting it in its pure form, only cooling it down much like a schnapps. With on watchers around it became a somewhat uncomfortable exercise as he didn’t like the taste. But he had tried it. It had been an effort to figure out if he could join the group of Gin drinker.

It gave us a reason to analyze the Gin adoption curve. We found a combination of an early adoption curve creating a trend that is slowly moving across the country.

What we could see was, that our movement seemed to have started some years ago in one of the larger cities in Germany, where large numbers of in-circles were enjoying Gin parties. Thus, for some of us, Gin parties were a long term trend as they had seen them years ago. Others had only met Gin room parties just a few years ago. We had attended several national events of our organization showing us how the movement had been growing in amplitude. Watching those organizing the room parties others concluded that adopting the idea would make them famous to their group. It’s a group everyone has. It’s a group that is listening to your news eager to hear something new and interesting. And so those taking the idea up and organizing Gin parties were able to spread the idea to their region.

It’s not sure that Gin will ever cross the chasm and become a drink which is chosen by a majority. It probably will not succeed to have this large presence over time. This was already visible in our small group. It’s simply not everyone’s taste and some don’t want to overcome the distaste.

But for those who like it, it is beneficial to become an early adopter within their group and thus spread the word. For a while, they raise their status in the group and become taste leaders. For them a good reason to spread the word.

The movement will slow down again when taste leaders are being invited by too many followers to their Gin parties.

Then it will be time to start a new thing.

And maybe, in one or two decades, the next generation will start the Gin movement again.

 

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