Gin is a distilled, colorless to a pale yellow alcoholic drink usually obtained from a grain mash
that derives its predominant flavor from juniper berries. Juniper berries have been combined with alcohol for medicinal use far back as 70AD when the Greek physician Pedanious Descorides published "De materia medica", a five-volume tone about herbal medicine. In this, he had a detailed description of juniper berries steeped in wine to be used to combat chest ailments. Later, the process of distillation would effect the way Juniper berries combined with alcohol would evolve. The process for the distillation of alcohol originated in the Arab world in 790 AD, when the Arab alchemist, Abu Musa Jabir Ibn Hayyan designed a simple "pot still"* which allowed for the effective distillation of many products. Distillation moved to Europe when the Moors invaded and ruled Sicily where Benedictine monks used this process to preserve locally grown medicinal plants, including juniper berries, to be used as medical treatments. In 1055, Benedictine monks in Salerno, Italy published, in their "Compendium Salernito", a recipe for a distilled alcohol spirit, infused with juniper, to be used as a health tonic. In the 16th century, the Dutch began producing juniper containing distilled spirits rather than wine-infused products. They called this spirit "genever". The name of the beverage came from the French name for the juniper berry "genevrier", changed by the Dutch to "genever (Jenever) and, later, shortened by the British to "Gen' or Gena" and, even later, to "Gin" Many attribute genever's origin to Professor Sylvius de Bouve a 16th-century chemist, alchemist and one of the founding professors of Medicine at the University of Leiden, Holland in 1575. He distilled malt wine** spirits which were unpalatable because of the unrefined distilling technique used by "pot distilling". Therefore, he combined the spirits with a distillate of juniper berries, for their alleged medicinal benefit, to mask the flavor. Thus, he produced a cheap "medicinal spirit" having the diuretic properties of the juniper berry oil. This was very different from the clear, juniper berry spirit that we now know as "gin", today. However, there is evidence that spirits flavored with juniper were around many years before de Bove produced his. In fact, genever was brought to the Holland from Belgium because the government of Belgium, concerned that the use of grain for the distilling of Genever would contribute to its continuing national food shortage, banned all distilling. Therefore, many Flemish distillers fled from Belgium to other countries, France, Germany, and Holland. The history of genever in Holland changed farther in 1575, when the Protestant Bolsius family moved from Cologne to Amsterdam and set up a distillery. Amsterdam was independent of the rule of the Catholic Spanish king and a haven for Protestant religious refugees. Bolius changed their name to the more Dutch sounding Bols. While they may not have been the first to make "Genever", they were the first commercial producer of this juniper flavored spirit made for recreational rather than medicinal use. Bols established a relationship with the Dutch East India Company for them to access exotic herbs and spices for their genever and contracted to supply the company's ships with genever, (their sailors being given a daily ration of genever) which, then, was carried throughout the world. The Dutch particularly prospered by their quick association with the Dutch East Indian Trading Company. With the Dutch East India Company using their trading monopoly of the world spice routes to supply the Dutch distillers with new, rare and exotic spices, the distillers began to experiment with these different spices and botanicals, changing their original, simple products in to a more complex spirits, spicy with exotic flavors. The Dutch continued to dominate the genever market around the world until many years later, through a slow process , the British developed a taste for genever. Over the next decades, the British changed the way genever was distilled into what was to become the "Gin" that we all know today. This will be covered in another blog post, "Food History" Gin: Part Two; Britain".
* Pot stills are copper pots from which there is an swan neck arm and an arm that protrudes as a spout. The heated malt wine evaporates in the pot, is cooled and condenses in the swan neck and the resulting distillate is collected via the spout.
**malt wine: a spirit made from corn, wheat and rye.
Tuesday, September 22, 2026
FOOD HISTORY: GIN (Part Two) Gin in Britain
FOOD HISTORY: GIN (Part Two) Gin in Britain
Genever was introduced to Britain over a many year period, beginning with the Eighty Years War in 1585, when 6000 British soldiers were sent by Queen Elizabeth to the Low Countries to help them fight against the Spanish but the troops arrived too late to be involved in much fighting While they were there, however, they observed a tradition among their Dutch counterparts where they sipped from small bottles of Genever that they carried on their belts. Before going into battle they drank some of their Genever after which they fought very bravely. The British dubbed this drink "Dutch Courage". Once again, in the Thirty Years War (1618-1648), British and Dutch troops fought together, both of them drinking "Dutch Courage" before battle. From the British soldiers association with their Dutch counterparts during these wars, Genever was introduced into Britain, where it was first called, Geneva", then, "Gena", "Gen" and finally, "Gin". Slowly it began to become popular. Gin increased in popularity ( and not in a necessarily good way) in 1689 when, through a number of historical twists and turns, the Dutchman, William of Orange, married to Mary, Queen of Scotland, ascended to the British throne. He took the name William III and he and Mary became King and Queen of England, Scotland and Ireland. Their rise to power brought greater popularity and demand for Gin as a beverage to the usually beer drinking English public. In addition, one of the first things King William did, was to initiate a trade war with France, Britain's traditional enemy. He blockaded French ports and laid heavy taxes on the import of French wines and cognac in order to weaken their economy. This had the effect of significantly reducing the availability of these products in England. Simultaneously, to make sure that the English still had their access to plentiful alcoholic beverages, he instituted The Corn Laws which provided British distillers tax breaks on spirit production. This resulted in a production spree in the distillation of Gin.Thousands of legal and illegal gin-shops sprang up using very poor quality grain and frequently adulterated Gin. Because of the relatively low price of gin compared to other alcoholic beverages, gin became popular with the poor. Also, because anyone could now prepare gin, many thousands of poor households distilled there own .This led to a disastrously period in English history known as the "Gin Craze" when a pint of Gin was cheaper than a pint of beer and was vastly available. After several years of increased drunkenness, higher infant mortality and an increase in the overall death rate, the government tried to address the problem by introducing the Gin Act in 1736. This significantly raised the duty put on the retail cost of gin with the stipulation that two gallons was the smallest quantity one could buy at retail. While this increased duty was reduced and finally abolished in 1741, the 1751 Gin act was more successful, forcing distillers to sell only to licensed retailers and brought gin shops under local government oversite. Gin continued to be distilled using the "pot still' method until, in 1826, a new distilling technique was invented by Scotsman, Robert Stein. Stein's still involved two columns whose design was later improved and patented by Irishman, Aeneas Coffey in 1831.These stills were called "column stills"* which could run continuously, not having to stop between batches as had the pot still. This allowed a much purer spirit to be produced on a larger scale. The clean spirit produced from the column stills allowed the distillers to significantly reduce or eliminate the sugar used to soften the harshness in the old, pot distilled gins. This new type of column still made the distillation of neutral spirits more practical and enabled a new style of gin to be created in the later 18th century.This new style of gin became known as Dry gin or London Dry gin and was usually distilled in the presence of bitter orange peel or lemon accents, as subtle combinations of many other spices, as well. This was more as more typical of the gin products we know today. Together with the reforms enacted by the government to reduce the abuses associated with uncontrolled Gin usage and the production process becoming more refined, with new, subtle flavors, in made its ascent into high society, Further,the evolution of Gin as a component of "new" alcoholic beverages was brought about by Britain's Empire building with expansion into territories all over the world. A large part of this involved the British navy.
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