History of GinGin is basically a distilled grain spirit flavored with extract form different plants, mainly the juniper berry. The Dutch were the first to make gin and have been doing so since the late 1500s.
Gin was invented b Franciscus de la Boe, also known as Dr. Sylvius. Dr. Sylvius was a Professor of medicine and physician at Holland’s University of Leyden. He used a juniper berry elixir known as genievere – French for juniper.
Dr. Sylvius also had medicinal benefits in mind, but his concoction was so potable that is swept the country as liquor, under the name Geneva or Genever.
He thought that juniper berries could be assist in the treatment of kidney and bladder ailments.
British soldiers sampled his elixir when returning from the wars in the Netherlands and nicknamed it “Dutch courage.” When they brought the recipe back to England, they changed the name to gen and later to gin, which soon became the national drink of England.
At one time, London alone had more than 7,000 gin places.
Cheap gin was soon being made in London from almost anything – “Make it in the morning and drink it at night” – and sold in hole-the-wall dramshop all over London.
King of England, William of Orange at the time, was from Holland had his own gin consumption became somewhat legendary; the royal banquet hall was nicknamed The Gin Palace.
The pattern repeated itself in the United States during Prohibition, when so called bathtub gin was made at home, from alcohol, juniper and glycerin. Bathtub gin too, was a poor and sometimes lethal product, and the custom arose of mixing it with something else to kill the state, thus popularizing the cocktail.
It took gin some years to outlive its tacky, but today it is a highly respected favorite.
History of Gin