PRE 1000 AD- Juniper Berries
Our short history of gin becomes with gin’s mandatory ingredient: juniper berries. In Egyptian times juniper berries were used as a cure for jaundice. In ancient Greece, juniper berries were also recorded as a cure for colic. Distillation, on the other hand, was invented in 700-800 AD by Arab alchemists who used distillation for medicinal purposes. Benedictine monks in the 11th century achieved medical breakthroughs using distillation. They also discovered that they could also use distillation to create perfumes.
Tracking the life of distillation in the UK, we see it started creeping in during the Tudor period in monasteries. Monks distilled British herbs, fruits, and spices to create medicines. When Henry VIII ascended the throne, he oversaw the dissolution of monasteries. This created an opportunity for average people to start distilling spirits for themselves.
14th Century- Genever
However, these new “spirits” were not gin. Gin was invented in the 14th century in Holland. Back then it was not known as gin, it was known as genever. Genever was a vastly different style of spirit than the gin that we know and drink today. It is more akin to whiskey than to modern gin.
Genever found its way to the UK thanks to Robert Dudley, the First Earl Of Leicester, who proposed to Queen Elizabeth I multiple times. She refused him multiple times. Robert Dudley was a huge supporter of the Protestant cause, so in 1585 he led the English campaign over to Holland where the British received their first taste of Dutch genever.
As rumour of this spirit reached the UK a distillation boom began. Spirit shops popped up all over the country, particularly in London. These spirit shops had no idea what they were doing, but they quickly realised that no matter what they put into their stills the distillate that came out was completely transparent. They named the distillate the only thing they saw fit …….. Strong Water!
17th Century- Dutch Courage
The 17th century was the starting point of the Thirty Year War between the Dutch and the Spanish. The British, who were fighting alongside the Dutch, were amazed by their military tactics as the Dutch seemed to spend the whole of the Thirty Year War drunk on genever. Soldiers stormed into battle with very little fear and very little care, and somehow ended up winning! The British were so amazed that they brought gin back to the UK as the next best thing. Gin was fantastic, and wars could be won drinking it, which was how gin got its nickname, “Dutch Courage”.
The gin boom began in earnest during this time. To put it into perspective, in 2019, 83 million bottles of gin were sold in the UK. This sounds like a lot, but it is actually just over one bottle per person. By comparison, in the 18th century, 70 litres of gin was made for every man, woman, and child! That is a shocking two bottles of gin per week per person. This means that they were drinking more gin in a week than modern Brits were drinking in an entire year!
18th Century -Mother’s Ruin
So why were they drinking so much? Consumption was fueled partly by the hype surrounding Dutch Courage, but it was mainly due to the poor sanitation of the time. Drinking water was sourced from the River Thames, which was also where all the sewage was dumped into. Gin was viewed as a safer and healthier alternative to water, which unfortunately led to a very high death rate, an extremely low birth rate, and an infant mortality rate of 24%.
These horrifying statistics led to the creation of William Hogarth’s famous 1751 painting entitled Gin Lane. Hogarth created the painting to illustrate the negative effects of gin on the people of London during the mid-1700s. The highlight of the painting is a drunk woman sitting on the steps whose newborn baby is falling to its untimely death. This led to the portrayal of gin as Mother Genever, Mother’s Gin, or Mother’s Ruin, which is exactly what it was!
The Rise of the Illegal Gin Trade
The government decided to step in to curb the public’s over-consumption of gin. They introduced landlords into pubs. These individuals served as quality control inspectors, and also made sure the government received their fair share of gin taxes. The government also reduced the beer tax to encourage people to drink beer rather than spirits. Lastly, the government created a law to restrict the size of the still that gin could be distilled in. Gin could not be produced in a still smaller than 1,800 litres. The new law made it difficult for people to make gin at home, which led to the production of less gin and more expensive gin.
This resulted in the rise of an illegal gin trade in the UK. The puss and mew device was the face of the illegal gin trade during the late 1700s. It also marked the invention of the first ever vending machine.
19th Century- London Dry Gin
London Dry Gin was created during this time. To clarify, London Dry Gin is not a geographical indicator, rather it defines the process by which gin is made. The mass production of gin in the 19th century gave us the birth of famous London Dry Gin brands like Gordon’s and Beefeater, which are brands you can find in supermarkets today.
The next evolution of gin came from the British Navy. Sailors took daily lime rations during their voyages on the East India trading route to prevent scurvy. Drinking lime juice neat was not very palatable and many sailors used to skip their daily rations. To prevent this, a man named Thomas Gimlet came up with the idea of mixing lime juice with sugar and London Dry Gin. After that, nobody wanted to miss their daily lime rations. This concoction, the gimlet, was the first gin cocktail to be created.
Another issue in the Navy was malaria. Malaria could be prevented by ingesting quinine, which came from the bark of cinchona trees in South America. Locals had already been using this bark for medicinal purposes, and when its anti-malarial properties were discovered, a tonic was created from it. The tonic was quite bitter, so people started to mix it with gin in order to make the medicine more palatable, thus giving rise to gin and tonic.
20th Century- Gin
During the 1900s, gin was extremely unpopular due to the harsh flavour that came from it being a mass produced product. Gin and gin culture was quickly replaced by vodka and vodka cocktail culture. The United States (US) in particular had a booming cocktail industry thanks to the invention of ice machines and refrigeration units. These inventions changed drinking culture all across the US, until 1920 when Prohibition began. Prohibition drove bartenders to venture to South America and the United Kingdom where they spread their knowledge of cocktail culture.
21st Century- Craft Gin
Why has gin experienced a rapid resurgence in popularity recently? That is the big question. In 2009, three men went to court to remove the minimum still size law after they failed to get a license to create craft gin. They were successful in their endeavour, and this helped pave the way for many others to open craft gin distilleries Currently, there are more gin distilleries in the UK than Scotch Whisky distilleries. In 2019, there was just short of 83 million bottles of gin sold in the UK.
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