Gin, Ladies and Gentlemen

From juniper to the glass

Juniperus in Latin. Jenever in Dutch. Genièvre in French. Genever in Old English. And it all ended up shortened to a simple Gin.

Anyway, if you are in a bar, saying “gin” is much easier than “jenever, please, from juniperus” with assorted degrees of rolled r’s. Oh yes. Juniperus is the name of the juniper. After all, gin is essentially juniper vodka.

A doctor invented the booze

Here we have yet another strong alcoholic drink that a doctor had a paw in creating. Nothing original. Everywhere, “aqua vitae” served as a medicine.

Franciscus Sylvius (a.k.a. François Dubois, a.k.a. Franz de le Boë; not a glitch, the guy simply had several names) was a celebrated Dutch physician. He was born on 15 March 1614 in Hanau, Germany. From 1658 he was a professor at Leiden University. It was he who began treating ailments with chemical remedies instead of prayer and bowing and scraping in church. He also treated with alkali or acid, depending on the symptoms of the illness. Sylvius was one of the founders of biochemistry. He studied the problem of tuberculosis in depth. He worked on the science of digestion and the circulation of fluids in the body.

It is this world-class fellow who is credited with inventing gin, as a diuretic medicine made from botanical garden ingredients, around 1650. At any rate, genever began to be made in the Netherlands in the 17th century. And it traveled to England with William III of Orange in 1688.

Dutch vs English

That said, British and Dutch gins differ in how they are distilled.

In the Netherlands it is customary to distill with barley. This gives the finished product a grainy tone. Then the drink is aged in oak barrels, like whisky. English gin is made on a base of wheat spirit. For a time the government allowed the spirit base to be made from poor, low-grade grain, the kind which, by the way, it was forbidden to brew beer from.

Incidentally, as early as 1638 King Charles I created the Worshipful Company of Distillers, a guild with a monopoly on distilling within 21 miles of London. So London and gin were doomed to each other.

The Gin Craze

By the middle of the 18th century gin was incredibly popular, especially among the poor. In 1726 London had 1,500 home stills, with gin being made right in residential houses. It was produced in six (six, you understand?) times the quantity of beer. And it was often flavored with turpentine for resinous notes instead of real juniper. In essence, it was already poison, slowly but surely killing the people.

The government came to its senses and introduced the “Gin Act” with heavy taxes on the producer. Twice, in fact. The first time (1736) there was a terrible riot among the population (reminds you of anything?). And the taxes were repealed. The second time (1751) it worked. Sellers became licensed, and only they could buy and resell the product. The dram shops were brought under control. Bootleg hooch stopped being turned out. The quality of the product went up.

London Dry Gin

Dry gin appeared at the start of the 19th century. Before that an ordinary pot still was used and the drink was sweetish. But once the process of continuous column distillation was invented, gin became dry.

London Dry Gin is a style of making, not a place. It is produced from grain rectified spirit of the highest purity, flavored exclusively with natural botanical ingredients. The juniper flavor must dominate. This is already a noble drink. It was mixed with tonic made from quinine, which was the first remedy for malaria. Actually, gin turned out to be needed to mask the nasty taste of the tonic. A medicinal remedy, as already said.

How gin is made

Gin is made from juniper. Especially Mediterranean. This plant is not cultivated, only wild, only a wild spirit. Juniper berries (actually cones) are placed in the spirit base. All of it is left to steep. Then it is distilled: 96% ABV spirit is distilled with juniper and other botanicals.

However, besides juniper, gin contains about a dozen more components. There may be coriander, angelica or iris roots, almond, citrus zest, fennel and other assorted stuff. The recipe is not regulated. But the strength is limited by law, no lower than 37.5%, so that producers don’t cheat.

Cocktail classics

Then came the gin-based drinks and cocktails. By the way, because consumers often mix gin with juices and tonics, producers began to cheat and make it weaker. That is why there is a law forbidding gin to be produced below 37.5% strength.

The “Gin and Tonic” is a classic. Gin, tonic, lemon, ice. Don’t shake anything. Just pour. Drink. Repeat. Although lime is perhaps more interesting here. There is also a variant with cucumber, that is, to hell with the lemon. Toss in a slice of fresh cucumber instead.

The “Dry Martini”: gin, tonic, olives, ice. Same routine. Pour, drink. Eat the olive. Repeat.

The “Apple Martini”: gin, dry vermouth, apple liqueur, an apple slice, ice. Pour. Garnish with the apple. Drink.

For variety, “Lady Chatterley”: gin, dry vermouth, Curaçao, fresh orange juice. Combine all the components in a shaker. Shake. Pour into a highball with ice. That’s it.

Naval officers and pirates

They say that while sailors on royal ships got rum, the officers drank gin. Who knows. It is a rather peculiar drink in taste, after all. Not to everyone’s liking. But if it’s true, then the officers were a hundred percent getting slaughtered by pirates, often the very ones who used to drink rum on that same ship. They took this very gin and gulped it down greedily.

Dun-dun, dudu-dun-dun, dudu-dun-dun, dudu-dun…