Gin

As early as the 11th century, Italian monks were distilling spirits whose harsh taste they masked with juniper berries. When the Black Death ravaged Europe in the centuries that followed, this forerunner of genever and gin was used as medicine. The drink is unlikely to have had much healing power, but the alcohol did have a numbing effect.

In the Low Countries a drink was made that closely resembled genever. Around 1650, Professor Franciscus de le Boë Sylvius is said to have made a distilled spirit with juniper, which he called genièvre: French for juniper berry. In everyday speech this soon became genever or jenever. Distillates with herbs such as anise, coriander and caraway were at first intended as medicine, but were soon being drunk for pleasure.

In Great Britain genever developed into a British product of its own: gin. English soldiers who fought alongside the Dutch against the Spanish in the Eighty Years’ War got to know genever. The fortifying glass before battle earned the nickname ‘Dutch Courage’.

In 1688 William III of Orange took the English throne. He encouraged the production of domestic spirits: from then on gin could be made without a licence, while the tax on imported spirits rose sharply. The result was an enormous production of cheap, poor-quality gin, made from inferior raw materials and with plenty of juniper and sugar to improve the taste.

Gin was affordable for everyone and the situation got completely out of hand. In 1720 production was equivalent to half a litre of gin for every Londoner, young and old included. Around 1740 half of all drinking establishments in London were a ‘gin shop’. Gin caused major social and medical problems.

Around 1750 the English government brought the abuse under control with the Sale of Spirits Act, also known as the Gin Act. Only large distilleries were still granted a licence, which benefited quality. With the invention of the Coffey still (also called the column still or patent still), purer distillates could later be made. This gave rise to the dry, unsweetened style we now know as London Dry Gin. The sickly sweet Old Tom gin, whose sugar was mainly meant to hide the harsh taste of the grain distillate, faded into the background. Gin grew from a drink of the masses into a respectable drink for the middle classes.

At the end of the 19th century gin overtook genever worldwide, mainly because the Americans, the first true cocktail drinkers, preferred gin. Gin is easy to mix and, until vodka came along, was the most important base for cocktails. When vodka became more popular in the 20th century, gin consumption declined. From the 1980s gin slowly regained ground, and since 2000 gin has been hugely popular, with a wider range than ever.