Gin

• 1. Introduction

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  Gin is the distilled, juniper-flavoured spirit at the heart of William Hogarth's 1751 engravings Beer Street and Gin Lane. The BBC described the pair as "arguably the most potent anti-drug poster ever conceived." Hogarth was attacking a drink that had begun life as medicine. How does a remedy made by monks and alchemists end up condemned as a public menace? Why did a spirit with that reputation later become the base of famous cocktails and the partner of tonic water? And what must a bottle contain today before the law allows it to be called gin?

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• 2. Juniper Medicine

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  Plague doctors of the Black Death stuffed the beaks of their masks with juniper, supposedly to protect themselves from infection. The berry had earned that trust over centuries as an essential part of a doctor's kit.

  Monks and alchemists across Europe turned that trust into a liquor. They distilled sharp, fiery tonics, and one of them came from wine infused with juniper berries. Since they were making medicines, juniper was the natural ingredient.

  Apothecaries handed out juniper tonic wines for coughs, colds, pains, strains, ruptures and cramps. People treated them as a cure-all.

  The earliest known written mention of jenever, the Dutch and Belgian form of the drink, sits in a 13th-century work called Der Naturen Bloeme, linked to Bruges. The earliest printed recipe appears in Een Constelijck Distileerboec, a 16th-century book from Antwerp. Later, distillers in Flanders and the Netherlands reworked the spirit into aqua vita made from distillates of grapes and grains. It became a product of real commercial weight in the spirits trade.

  The word gin itself is a clipped form of the older English word genever. That word is kin to the French genièvre and the Dutch jenever, and all of them descend from juniperus, the Latin name for juniper.

  Not everyone approved of the tonic wines. Some critics thought they were too popular, and drunk for pleasure rather than for treatment.

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• 3. Dutch Courage

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  Franciscus Sylvius, a physician, is often credited with inventing gin in the middle of the 17th century. The credit is false. Jenever is already confirmed in Philip Massinger's play The Duke of Milan, from 1623, when Sylvius would have been about nine years old. Earlier still, in 1606, eight years before Sylvius was born, a Dutch States' ordinance on brandy taxed distilled anise, gin or fennel water sold as alcoholic drinks.

  The year 1585 offers another clue. English soldiers who supported the Dutch against the Spanish at Antwerp, during the Eighty Years' War, are said to have drunk jenever for its calming effect before battle. The term Dutch courage is believed to have come from this.

  By the middle of the 17th century, numerous small Dutch and Flemish distillers had made it popular to redistil malted barley spirit, called malt wine, with juniper. They added anise, caraway, coriander and other flavourings. Pharmacies sold the results for kidney ailments, lumbago, stomach ailments, gallstones and gout.

  Schiedam, a city in the province of South Holland, is famous for its history of making jenever. So is Hasselt, in the Belgian province of Limburg, and each city hosts a National Jenever Museum. Dutch or Belgian gin evolved from malt wine spirits and is a distinctly different drink from the later styles. The oude, or old, style stayed very popular through the 19th century, when pre-Prohibition American bartender guides called it Holland or Geneva gin.

  Across the water, gin had already appeared in England in varying forms by the early 17th century. It enjoyed a brief resurgence at the Stuart Restoration, but its real rise was still to come.

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• 4. The Gin Craze

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  The Glorious Revolution of 1688 changed what England drank. William III and Mary II became co-sovereigns of England, Scotland and Ireland after leading it, and gin grew vastly more popular as an alternative to French brandy. Historian Angela McShane has called it a "Protestant drink," because a Protestant king's rise brought it forward, and it fuelled his armies fighting the Catholic Irish and French.

  Gin drinking rose sharply once the government allowed unlicensed production while placing a heavy duty on imported spirits such as French brandy. That created a market for poor-quality barley unfit for brewing beer. Between 1695 and 1735, thousands of gin shops sprang up across England. The period is known as the Gin Craze, and it made gin the national alcoholic drink of England.

  Of the 15,000 drinking establishments in London, not counting coffee shops and drinking chocolate shops, over half were gin shops. Gin was cheap compared with the other drinks on offer, so the poor began to drink it regularly. Beer kept a healthy reputation because brewed ale was often safer than unclean plain water. Gin took the blame for various social problems, and it may have been a factor in the higher death rates that stabilised London's previously growing population.

  That reputation survives in the language. A gin mill and the American gin joint both describe a disreputable bar, and gin-soaked describes a drunk. Mother's ruin remains a common British name for gin, although where it came from is debated.

  The Gin Act 1736 imposed high taxes on retailers and sent rioters into the streets. The prohibitive duty was reduced gradually and finally abolished in 1742. The Gin Act 1751 proved more successful. It forced distillers to sell only to licensed retailers and placed gin shops under the authority of local magistrates.

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• 5. Turpentine and Ether

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  London had an estimated 1,500 residential stills in 1726, and much of the city's gin was legally distilled inside ordinary houses. Distillers often flavoured it with turpentine, which added resinous, woody notes beside the juniper. Crude, inferior gin was the most likely to contain it. As late as 1913, Webster's Dictionary stated, without further comment, that "'common gin' is usually flavoured with turpentine."

  Another common variation was to distil in the presence of sulphuric acid. The acid itself does not distil, yet it gives the finished gin the aroma of diethyl ether. It strips one water molecule from two ethanol molecules, which forms diethyl ether. That ether mixes with ethanol into an azeotrope, a blend that boils as one, so it distils along with the spirit. The result was a sweeter drink that may also have had analgesic or even intoxicating effects.

  These gins came from pot stills, which gave them a maltier profile than modern London gin. The 18th century also produced Old Tom gin, a softer and sweeter style that often contained sugar. Old Tom faded in popularity by the early 20th century.

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• 6. Stills and Botanicals

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  Two dates, 1826 and 1831, mark the invention and development of the column still. It made neutral spirits practical to distil, and the London dry style evolved from it later in the 19th century.

  Modern gin falls into three broad styles. Pot distilled gin is the oldest. Makers ferment a grain mash, called malt wine, from barley or other grains, then redistil it with botanicals to draw out aromatic compounds. A pot still gives a relatively low strength, around 68% ABV for single distilled gin and 76% ABV for a double gin, which is the first gin redistilled with more botanicals. ABV means alcohol by volume. This style is often aged in tanks or wooden casks and keeps a heavy, malty flavour that strongly resembles whisky. Korenwijn, meaning grain wine, and the oude style of Geneva or Holland gin are the best-known examples.

  Column distilled gin followed the invention of the Coffey still. Distillers first produce a high-proof neutral spirit, for example 96% ABV, using a refluxing still such as a column still. The base can come from grain, sugar beets, grapes, potatoes, sugar cane, plain sugar or any other agricultural material. They then redistil that spirit with juniper and other botanicals in a pot still. Most often the botanicals sit in a gin basket in the head of the still, where hot alcoholic vapours draw flavour from them. The gin is lighter than the pot still kind, and it becomes either distilled gin or London dry gin depending on how the spirit is finished. Hybrid, computer-controlled stills now let smaller distilleries around the world manage flavour and reflux, which has produced smoother spirits.

  Compound gin is the third style. Makers blend neutral spirit with essences or other natural flavourings, or let ingredients infuse in neutral spirit without any redistillation.

  After juniper, the most common botanical is coriander, which adds a warm, spicy, citrus-like flavour. Cinnamon, cassia, cardamom, pepper from black or sichuan sources, and nutmeg are common spices. Angelica root, orris root and liquorice root add flavour of their own and help bind the more volatile flavours together. Citrus peels from lemon, orange and grapefruit contribute fresh oils and a gentle heat. Some distillers reach for saffron, baobab, frankincense, clove, ginger, pine needles and cone, grains of paradise or dragon eye, also called longan, to set their gin apart.

  Chemical research has begun to identify what distillation draws out. Juniper monoterpenes come from the berries. Limonene and gamma-terpinene linalool, found in limes, blueberries and hops among other plants, give citrus and berry notes. Geraniol and eugenol supply floral notes. Sabinene, delta-3-carene and para-cymene bring spice.

  The Botanist, from the Hebridean island of Islay in Scotland, is made with 31 botanicals, 22 of them native to the island. Bombay Sapphire is distilled with ten botanicals, and Hendrick's Gin is infused with cucumber and rose petal. In 2018, flavoured gin accounted for more than half the growth in the UK gin category.

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• 7. Quinine and Cocktails

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  In tropical British colonies, gin was used to mask the bitter taste of quinine, then the only effective anti-malarial compound. Dissolving quinine in carbonated water produced tonic water, and mixing that with gin produced the gin and tonic. Modern tonic water carries only a trace of quinine, kept as a flavouring.

  The martini, traditionally made with gin and dry vermouth, is the best-known gin cocktail. The classics run long, from the Aviation and the Bee's Knees to the French 75, the Gimlet, the Negroni, the Singapore Sling, the Tom Collins, the Vesper and the White Lady.

  Prohibition-era America had its own version of the drink. Secretly produced bathtub gin was sold in speakeasies and blind pigs, and the relatively simple production made it easy to turn out.

  Gin also serves as the base for liqueurs. Sloe gin is traditionally described as a liqueur made by infusing sloes, the fruit of the blackthorn, in gin. Modern versions are almost always compounded from neutral spirits and flavourings instead. Damsons can be infused in the same way. Pimm's No.1 Cup, at 25% ABV, is a long-established gin-based fruit cup flavoured with citrus and spices.

  Since 2013, gin has been in a period of ascendancy worldwide, with many new brands and strong growth. Gin-based liqueurs have reached drinkers outside the traditional gin crowd, among them pink gin, rhubarb gin, spiced gin, violet gin and blood orange gin. Surging popularity and unchecked competition have led buyers to confuse gin with gin liqueurs. Many products now push or break the boundaries of the established definitions.

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• 8. Legal Lines

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  European Union rules divide gin into four legal categories. The oldest class is the juniper-flavoured spirit drink. Makers pot distil a fermented grain mash to a moderate strength, for example 68% ABV, then redistil it with botanicals. It must be bottled at a minimum of 30% ABV, and it may also be sold as Wacholder or Ginebra.

  The second category is simply called gin. It is made by adding approved natural flavouring substances to a neutral spirit of agricultural origin, with no redistillation of botanicals. Juniper must be the predominant flavour, and the minimum bottled strength is 37.5% ABV.

  Distilled gin must be made exclusively by redistilling agricultural ethanol of 96% ABV in the presence of juniper berries and other natural botanicals. Juniper must again predominate. Gin made only by adding essences or flavourings does not qualify, and the minimum bottled strength is 37.5% ABV.

  London gin is the strictest. Its ethanol may contain at most 5 g of methanol per hectolitre of 100% ABV equivalent, and its flavour comes only from redistilling with the natural plant materials in traditional stills. The resulting distillate must reach at least 70% ABV. It may contain no more than 0.1 g of sugars per litre, no colourants, and nothing added except water. The term may be supplemented by the word dry, and the minimum bottled strength is 37.5% ABV. Despite the name, it is not a geographical designation.

  In the United States, gin must be at least 40% ABV, or 80 proof, with the characteristic flavour of juniper berries. Gin made only through redistilling botanicals can be marketed as distilled gin. Canadian regulation recognises three definitions, Genever, Gin, and London or Dry gin. Either compounded or distilled gin may be labelled Dry Gin or London Dry Gin if it contains no sweetening agents. Genever and Gin may contain no more than two percent sweetening agents.

  Some classifications tie gin to a place, such as Plymouth gin, whose protected status has now lapsed, Ostfriesischer Korngenever, Slovenská borovička and Kraški Brinjevec. Styles like Old Tom are culturally recognised but not legally defined.

  Sloe gin carries a final exception. Although technically a gin-based liqueur, EU spirit drink regulations allow the colloquial term sloe gin to be used without the word liqueur when certain production criteria are met.

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