In its basic form, gin is vodka that has been redistilled with herbs and botanicals. Many are used like citrus peels, coriander, ginger, rose petals, nutmeg, and cassia bark, but the most prominent is the juniper berry. Dr. Sylvius, a Dutch professor and physician is credited in making gin as a cure-all tonic in the 1650’s. Today, many alcohol historians debate this because the juniper berry was quite plentiful in Italy, which leads them to believe that Italian monks first made gin.

The three main categories of gin are: London dry gin, Plymouth English gin and Genever (also spelled Jenever). The word Genever is Dutch for juniper and the word gin is a shortening of the word Genever.. Holland and Belgium make Genever, which is considered the original style of gin made in pot stills. It’s sweeter than London dry gin. London dry gin is the most popular because it mixes well. It doesn’t have to be made in England (America, Germany, and Spain make gin as well). Plymouth English gin can only be made in Plymouth. And it was the first gin used in a printed recipe in a Martini.

Old Tom Gin is the only produced example we have today of what sweeter gin use to taste like. It got its name from a cat shaped plaque that was mounted on the outside of some English pubs. One could deposit money in the cat’s mouth then place their mouth on a tube between the cats paws. A barman inside would pour a dram of gin into the tube. How about that for an ancient vending machine!

Gin became the crack cocaine of London in the 1700s and into the 1800s. It was cheaper than ale and led to Gin Madness, The Gin Act and Gin Lane. London turned into a slum full of poverty and despair. Artist William Hogarth captured the time when he engraved Gin Lane in 1750. Now fast forward to the early 1900s and you’ll find that gin makes a 180-degree turn due to Hollywood glamorizing it served chilled in a cocktail glass (Martini glass) on the silver screen. All anything needs is a little time.

 

In the 1900s Hollywood portrayed gin as a glamorous and sophisticated spirit served in a Martini glass (cocktail glass).

 

	Bombay Sapphire		Beefeater
	Tanqueray		Plymouth Gin
	The Art that is Gin		Van Gogh
	Gin Drinks		Gin Salad Dressing

London gin is distilled from a mixture that contains more barley than corn. It's drier than Dutch gin and they will even say that on the label, London Dry Gin. Dutch gin is distilled from a mixture of barley, malt, corn and rye and is slightly sweeter than London gins.
The most popular brands of gin are; Bombay, Beefeater, Gordon's, Boodles, Tanqueray, and Plymouth.

The most popular drinks made with gin are, the classic Martini, Tom Collins, Pink Lady, Gibson, and Gin & Tonic.

Gin Facts

Bombay Sapphire’s bottle is a translucent light blue with the herbs and botanicals listed down the sides

The dark green Tanqueray bottle is said to be modeled after a British fire hydrant or a cocktail shaker. Most believe that ‘s the latter because the Tanqueray 10 bottle looks like a cocktail shaker as well.

The first Seagram’s gin bottle was textured with starfish and seashells.

Sloe gin is not gin. It's a liqueur made from sloeberries.

 

Artist William Hogarth engraves, Gin Lane, which depicts the time in 1750 showing poverty and misery. The engraving shows slummy London streets with a gin cellar with the inscription, Drunk for a Penny, Dead Drunk for Two Pence, Clean Straw for Nothing, an exposed room shows that a man has hung himself, a carpenter is trying to sell his tools, a housewife tries to sell her pots, people are fighting, laughing, and drinking, and a woman who was breast feeding drops her baby.

Homemade gin made during prohibition was called bathtub gin because people would make it in their bathtub.

America’s first distillery was built in Staten Island and produces gin in 1640.

The first health warning is printed on a bottle of gin in 1751.

Of all the gin joints in all the towns in all the world she walks into mine.
--Casablanca

 

Snoop Dog came out with a song and album called Gin & Juice: got me some Seagram's gin, everybody got they cups, but they ain't chipped in...now Seagram's has come out with some flavored Gin & Juice spirits.

 

 

 

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