Gin
Gin is a spirit, or strong alcoholic beverage. It is made from the distillation of white grain spirit and juniper berries, which provide its distinctive flavor. The taste of ordinary gin is very dry, and as such it is frequently mixed with other beverages. It should not be confused with sloe gin, a sweet liqueur traditionally made from sloes (the fruit of the blackthorn) infused in gin.
The most common style of gin, typically used for mixed drinks, is `London dry gin`, which refers not to brand, marque, or origin, but to a distillation process. London dry gin is a high-proof spirit, usually produced in a column still and redistilled after the botanicals are added to the base spirit. In addition to juniper, it is usually made with a small amount of citrus botanicals like lemon and bitter orange peel. Other botanicals that may be used include anise, angelica root, orris root, licorice root, cinnamon, coriander, and cassia bark.
A well-made gin will be dry with a smooth texture lacking in harshness. The flavor will be harmonious yet with a crisp character with a pronounced juniper flavor.
Other types of gin include Jenever (Dutch gin), Plymouth gin, and Old Tom gin (said to approximate the pot-distilled 18th century spirit).
History
Gin originated in the Netherlands in the 17th century. Its invention is often credited to the physician Franciscus Sylvius. It spread to England after the Glorious Revolution put a Dutchman on the British throne. Dutch gin, known as jenever, is a distinctly different drink from English-style gin; it is distilled with barley and sometimes aged in wood, giving it a slight resemblance to whisky. Schiedam, in South Holland, is famous for its jenever. Jenever is produced in a pot still and is typically lower in alcohol and more strongly flavoured than London gin.
Gin became very popular in England after the government allowed unlicensed gin production and at the same time imposed a heavy duty on all imported spirits. This created a market for poor-quality grain that was unfit for brewing beer, and thousands of gin-shops sprang up all over England. By 1740 the production of gin had increased to six times that of beer, and because of its cheapness it became extremely popular with the poor. Of the 15,000 drinking establishments in London, over half were gin-shops. Beer maintained a healthy reputation as it was often safer to drink the brewed ale than unclean plain water. Gin, though, was blamed for various social and medical problems, and it may have been a factor in the high death rate that caused London`s previously increasing population to remain stable. The reputation of the two drinks was illustrated by William Hogarth in his engravings Beer Street and Gin Lane (1751). This negative reputation survives today in the English language, in terms like ``gin-mills`` to describe disreputable bars or ``gin-soaked`` to refer to drunks, and in the phrase ``Mother`s Ruin,`` a common British name for gin.
The Gin Act of 1736 imposed high taxes on retailers but led to riots in the streets. The prohibitive duty was gradually reduced and finally abolished in 1742. The Gin Act of 1751 was more successful, however. It forced distillers to sell only to licensed retailers and brought gin-shops under the jurisdiction of local magistrates. Gin in the 18th century was produced in pot stills, and was somewhat sweeter than the London gin known today.
In London in the early eighteenth century, gin sold on the black market was prepared in illicit stills (of which there were 1500 in 1726) and was often adulterated with turpentine and sulphuric acid.
The column still was invented in 1832, and the `London dry` style was developed later in the 19th century. In tropical English colonies, gin was used to mask the bitter flavour of quinine, a protection against malaria, which was diluted in tonic water. This was the origin of today`s popular gin and tonic combination, even though quinine is no longer used against malaria. Many other gin-based mixed drinks were invented, including the martini. Secretly produced `bathtub gin` was a common drink in the speakeasies of Prohibition-era America due to the relative simplicity of the basic production methods. It remained popular as the basis of many cocktails after the repeal of Prohibition.
The National Gin Museum is in Hasselt, Belgium.
This article is based entirely or in part on the
Gin wikipedia article
and is licenced under the terms of the
GNU Free Documentation Licence.
Contact
If we can be of any assistance please don't hesitate to contact us, or drop by the Rose & Crown during business hours:
email: roseandcrown@alderney.ws
phone: +44 (0) 1481 823414
fax: +44 (0) 1481 823615
The Rose & Crown Hotel
Le Huret,
Alderney
UK Channel Islands
Delivery on Alderney is free :-) we deliver Monday to Saturday between 10am and 1pm.
Please note that we cannot deliver off-island.
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In this categoryBeefeater Export
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A B V: 47% Vintage: -1 Color: Code: 27403
Bombay Sapphire Litre 47pc
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A B V: 47% Vintage: -1 Color: Code: 33684
Gordons Green
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A B V: 37.5% Vintage: -1 Color: Code: 279
Rose and Crown Draught Gin halfL
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A B V: 40% Vintage: -1 Color: Code: 10479
Tanqueray London Dry
Tanqueray Gin was initially distilled in 1830, by Charles Tanqueray who was descended from three generations of clergy from the village of Tingreth in Bedfordshire. At 20 he chose not to follow the family calling and established a distillery in the Bloomsbury district of London instead. The original variant, launched in 1830: the key botanicals are juniper, coriander and angelica root. It is produced at 104 proof (52% alcohol). [read on...]
A B V: 47.3% Vintage: non-vintag Color: unspecifie Code: 3102
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