All About gin.

Gin is one of the most important spirits in a bar that you can have. It is a stable of all the spirit world and a base for many a cocktail. It is a dry tasting spirit infusion. The main flavoring in it is that of juniper berries. Other things that you will find in the making of are angelica, liquorice, orris-root, dried citrus peel, caraway seeds and coriander to name a few.

If you were like me, you properly thought that gin was as British as you can get a product of the empire and all that. The image of colonial type sipping gin and watching the sun set in some far part of the empire.

Well that is what you would think but to start with it is probably not British at all . According to my research it looks like it original came from Holland. It would appear that it was first made as a medical drink like most spirits. The berries of the juniper plant in Dutch is called "Genever" and the British shortened that to get "Gin". It was probably soldiers coming home from the thirty years war who brought it back. Any way who ever brought it back does not stop the fact that is existed in Holland around the 16th century and was not being distilled in London till the 17th century.

Another thing about the way you perceive gin is to be a respectable drink. To have a G and T is almost to be as respectable as you can get. But this was not always so . The terms that you associate with gin such as "bath tub" or "mothers ruin" do not come from a respectable past. It was when Briton was at war with France, as it seemed to be so many times in the past that it was very expensive to get wine or cognac from France. Also, put this with a reform of the excise system making beer subject to being taxed and becoming more expensive. Suddenly Gin was cheap to make and drink. Well as you can imagine it was the drink of the very poor and who allegedly consumed the same amounts of gin as they did beer.

With that as this happen public drunkenness and drink, related illness was commonplace. It is the facts that as it was the poor who drank the most of the gin. As they lived in such poverty and miserable surroundings, the drink became associated with gloom and depression. An advert from the time claimed that "You could get drunk for a penny, dead drunk for tuppence". William Hogarth produced a picture call Gin lane. It depicts the scene from a street in London ware a woman how is feeding her child while drunk on gin is seen to be drooping the baby on its head. Some of the reason why it all was so cheap was the fact that to make the gin you use grain. To help keep the grain prices high distilling of gin was encouraged. But the quality control was not a thing that any one had heard of. By 1750 over a quarter of the residents of St Giles in London were gin shops. According to records at the time, most of them also were trading in the receiving of stolen goods and prostitution. The government of the day did try to do some thing and made the purchase of small amounts was mad illegal by act of parliament. The trouble with that was contraband gin filled the market and was more toxic than the official spirit.

It was not till the late Victorian time that gin began to get a air of respectability as it was seemed to be a more ladylike drink compared to whiskey or cognac. And so came gins grate days. As it was taken all over the empire and drank with tonic water. Indian tonic water that had a small amount of quinine in it to keep away the ravages of malaria. Then as the roaring twenties started it was the drink that was use in so many cocktail. During the prohibition era in the United States a cheap gin called bathtub gin was born . Once more driving the drink into the under belly of society.

Now days gin is a respected main stay of any bar and one of the big six spirits in a bar. You get two types of English gin. London gin and Plymouth gin. Plymouth gin is dryer than its London varieties. You can get the Dutch "Genever" but this is a very different animal from the English drinks.

The best way to serve a gin is in the classic Gin and Tonic. Take a tall glass, lots of ice and a slice of lemon. Give the slice of lemon a squeeze into the glass and just a rub round the rim. This imparts a good lemon flavour in to the drink. Then take a measure of gin and then top up with tonic.