We thought in todays article we would share the fascinating origins of Gin and its distinctions. Gin is distilled alcoholic drink flavoured with juniper and other botanical ingredients. 

Gin the name is from a old English word of genever, which borrows heavily from the French word genièvre and Dutch word jenever, which all derived from original Latin word of juniper, juniperus. 

Gin was originally created by monks and alchemists for medical purposes, earliest mention of Gin was 13th century and earliest printed recipe of gin dates back to the 16th century. Monks distilled gin as firey, sharp tonics form juniper distilled wines. Juniper has been a popular medicinal herb in doctors kits for centuries often used in medicine, plague doctors used juniper in their mask to  try stop catching the Black Death and Romans used to burn juniper branches for purification.

In the mid 17th century a number of  Dutch and Flemish distillers modernised th style of gin adding aqua vita from distillates of grapes and grains. Gin became popular after Dutch and Belgian liquor jenever was introduced. During a so- called gin craze between 1695- 1735, gin became the national drink of England. 

this was as during the 18th century England's government imposed heavy taxation of French liquor and unlicensed distillation of gin, this created market of poor quality barely unfit for beer distillation. During the Gin-craze thousands of shop to pop up, with low price of gin compared to other avaible drinks, some 15,000 drinking  establishments across London pretty much half were gin shops. 

In 1736 a Gin Act was imposed which lead to rioting due to high taxation on retailers, the act was slowly reduced until it was abolished 1742. A second Ging Act of 1751 was more successful, but forced distillers to sell with licensed retailers which were under the the local magistrates jurisdictions. The 18th century also gave rise to the Old Tom style of gin which is softer and sweeter style of gin which popularity has faded slightly in the modern age. 

 In 1826 and 1831 the invention and development of column stills allowed for a more neutral sprit to be created that was the foundation for modern days London dry gin which was evolved later in the 19th century. In tropical British colonies gin was used to mask the bitter taste of quinine, a anti-malaria compound, the compound was dissolved in carbonated water to create tonic, inadvertently creating the cocktail of gin and tonic , modern day tonic water has only has a trace amount of quinine as flavouring. 

Since 2013 the popularity of gin has been in rapid ascendancy worldwide, with many new distillers driving innovation in production and flavours amongst the strong growth.  Recently the popularity of flavoured gins and gin-based liquors have led the charge to engage a market outside of the traditional gin drinker.  

There a National Jenever museums in Belgium and the Netherlands. 

We hope you enjoyed learning about the origins of gin and its fascinating history, we have a wide range of gin available online or in-store if this has go you interested in trying a Gin.