The Wild Drink Blog

I’ve been working on this one for quite some time now, much more substantial than the Rum Timeline and hopefully just as interesting.

Origin of the name

Abbreviation from the dutch jenever (jenever, jeniever, juneva, genever, genevrer… etc.), the spirit from which gin evolved. Jenever itself thought to come from the french word for juniper: genévrier. Since there are so many spellings and names for ‘Dutch Gin’ for the benefit of this article, i’ll stick to Jenever… whether it’s right or wrong!

Timeline

Middle Ages/16th Century - Jenever was first made. Leiden university professor and chemist Sylvius de Bouve is credited with inventing it, by adding the medicinal juniper berry to pot distilled grain alcohol (korenbrandewijn - unaged whisky, if you like). Dr. Sylvius is very often confused with a German born doctor by the same name (Franciscus Sylvius) who is more famous for discoveries in neurology. Amusingly, by the time Franciscus (pictured below, because there are no pictures of de Bouve) bas born in 1614 Jenever was already very popular.

Sylvius prescribed Jenever as a cure for stomach upsets, bladder infections and kidney stones. Juniper has long been hailed as a great natural remedy for urinary infections. Juniper was a common flavouring of that time and was popularly being used to flavour beer.

1575 - The Bols family move to Amsterdam and set up their distillery t Lootsje (The Little Shed). What were they distilling? Who knows? It is entirely possible that they jumped on the Jenever bandwagon, though it could have been another flavoured spirit entirely. Bols lay claim to being the oldest operating Dutch company and the oldest distilling brand in the world.

Not this guy - Imposter!

1595 - Records of Sylvius de Bouve selling Jenever (Genova) a distilled moutwijn (maltwine) flavoured with juniper and other aromatics, but he could and probably would have been selling it before that time.Because distillation techniques of that era were so crude, the distillate, taken to 50% ABV would need flavouring in order to cover up the bad characteristics of the spirit itself.

1618-1648 - The Thirty Years War. A war which started as a conflict between protestants and catholics developed into an all out political fight between most of the European powers. Though England was internally divided, in 1625 they formed a coalition (Coalition of the Hague) with the Dutch and Danish. During the resulting battles against the Spanish, English troops witnessed the Dutch swigging back clear liquor or ‘Dutch Courage’. The English called the spirit Gin and they took the spirit home with them.

1638 - King Charles I sets up the Worshipful Company of Distillers in London. The formation of this company gave members the sole right to distill spirits in London and Westminster and up to twenty-one miles beyond. It improved both the quality of gin and its image.

Around the same time the wife of a high powered Spanish Viceroy in Peru fell ill with malaria, the Viceroy begged the local Incas to help cure her illness. In a show of generosity the Incas instructed the sickly wife to drink a potion containing the bark of the ‘Quinquina’ tree which grew on the slopes of the Andes and a natural source of quinine. The woman drank the tonic water potion and was cured.

1660 - Samuel Pepys wrote of curing a case of “colic” with a dose of “strong water made with juniper”.

1688 - 1689 - James II King of England for three years alienates his subjects and removes parliament as he promotes Catholicism. William of Orange a Protestant Dutch prince and also the son-in-law of James II invades England and is welcomed by pretty much everyone, except James. William (aka William III - below) takes to the thrown of England and in 1690 begins to actively promote the distillation of English spirits amongst everyone. Additionaly he discouraged the importation of spirits from Catholic countries (France - Brandy) by placing high taxes upon them.

William of Orange rides into England

1690 - 500,000 gallons of gin being made in London this year.

1691 - The Nolet family of Holland open their distillery producing Genever in the now famous Ketel One.

Early 1700 - Gin becomes increasingly popular. At first even the upper classes can’t resist gin, Queen Anne (below) is nicknamed “dram-shop” because of her liking for the bottle, and Bolingbroke, a Tory politician, appears in his office with a wet napkin tied round his head after his previous night’s imbibitions.

Queen Anne - Pisshead?

Alcohol consumption is considerable at all levels of society and it is gin causing the main problems. Other names for gin at that time include: Mother’s Ruin, Madam Geneva, The Makeshift, Slappy Bonita, and even ‘King Theodor of Corsica’. In the slums of Clerkenwell gin was in such demand that it was being sold from wheelbarrows in the street.

1703 - Charles Davenant, an English economist argues in reference to gin, that:

‘Tis a growing fad among the common people and may in time prevail as much as opium with the Turks’

1710 - British Consumption of Alcohol up to 19,000,000 gallons. Estimated 25% of households stocked gin.

1721 - Middlesex Magistrates court describe gin as

“The principal cause of all the vice & debauchery committed among the inferior sort of people”

1726 - London has 1,500 stills and 6,287 places where gin was sold, much of it with the addition of turpentine, alum and sulphuric acid.

1729 - First of five ‘Gin Acts’ passed to control the consumption of gin amongst the lower classes. 5 shillings tax per gallon of gin sold.

1735 - The Story of Judith Dafur. Judith took her two-year-old toddler to the local workhouse and left the child there. She returned a few days later and claimed the toddler—and his new clothes. She then strangled her child, left the naked body in a ditch, and sold the clothes for sixteen pence…which she spent on gin. A similar story tells of Mary Estwick who drunkenly allowed her baby to burn to death.

1736 - Second Gin Act taxed retailers of gin 20 shillings per gallon and required that they pay an annual fee of £50 for a license, it also forbids the sale of gin in quantities of less than two gallons. The act was nearly useless as a total of two licenses were ever taken out and the entire trade (not consumption) became illegal. Informers were paid £5 to reveal locations of illegal gin retailers, but s a result the informers were targets for violence. One loophole exploited was the sale of the spirit under various other names such as Ladies’ Delight, Bob, Cuckold’s Delight and the none-too-subtle Parliament gin

Bishop of Sodar, Thomas Wilson says that gin produced a:

‘…drunken ungovernable set of people.’

Meanwhile, Middlesex Magistrates (who seem to be the instigator of all put-downs!) state:

‘It is with the deepest concern your committee observe the strong Inclination of the inferior Sort of People to these destructive Liquors, and how surprisingly this Infection has spread within these few Years … it is scarce possible for Persons in low Life to go anywhere or to be anywhere, without being drawn in to taste, and, by Degrees, to like and approve of this pernicious Liquor.’

1739 - December 29th at Midnight gin prices made prohibitively expensive, riots break out. 11 million gallons of gin were distilled in London this year which is over 20 times the 1690 figure, estimated to be the equivalent of 14 gallons for each adult male.

1743 - Taxes revoked aiming to move distillers out from backstreets and improve the quality of the product. Consumption of gin in England as whole had risen to 10 litres per person per annum. In London it was more like a pint every week. Birth rates are down, suicide and death rates are up.

1747 - Further gin act. At this time over 25% of the residences in St Giles perish of London are gin shops.

1750 - Sale of Spirits Act 1750, more commonly known as the Gin Act 1751. This act prohibited the distillers from selling gin to unlicensed merchants and increased the fees charged to the merchants. As a result many hundreds of small gin shops closed down. Interestingly at the same time the import of tea was greatly encourged in order to offer the masses an alternative invigorating beverage.

1751 - William Hogarth publishes the engraving titled ‘Gin Lane’. The engraving is drawn up in conjunction with another piece entitled ‘Beer Lane’. The satirical works are supposed to demonstrate the gin problem by depicting happy people drinking beer and a whole host of problems on ‘Gin Lane’. The works are published as propaganda and there is some speculation that they were even commissioned by the magistrate Henry Fielding.

Gin Lane by William Hogarth 1751

Some observations about the engraving include: Flourishing trade at the pawnbrokers (Interestingly it is the cross from the pawnbrokers which forms the cross on the distant church) and funeral directors, man hanging in the building on the right, building crumbling apart in the background. The writing above the ‘Royal Gin’ cellar in the bottom right reads:

‘Drunk for a penny, dead drunk for two pennies, clean street for free’

By the ‘Kilman Distiler’ (presumably a pun for kill-man) there is mass fighting and more notably images of both a baby and an old person (in a wheel-barrow) being force fed gin. Just back from there is a man beating himself with what looks like a pair of bellows whilst he (alarmingly) holds a baby on a spike! Back to the left side of the picture a man shares a bone with his dog and at the bottom the dead man on the steps has a document hanging out of his basket which reads:

‘The Death of Mrs Gin’

Finally, in the middle of the picture is a woman (thought to be the personification of Madame Genever), but also echoes Judith Dafur. The woman is seriously neglecting her child as it falls to its death, we can also see strange marks on her legs as a sign of illness, meanwhile her expression is one of blissful ignorance to her situation.

Not pictured above is a verse included on the bottom of the engraving which reads:

Gin cursed Fiend, with Fury fraught,
Makes human Race a Prey;
It enters by a deadly Draught,
And Steals our Life away.

Virtue and Truth , driv’n to Despair,
It’s Rage compels to fly,
But cherishes, with hellish Care,
Theft, Murder, Perjury. Damn’s Cup!

That on the Vitals preys,
That liquid Fire contains
Which Madness to the Heart conveys,
And rolls it thro’ the Veins.

Nice.

Late 1700 - Gin finally establishes itself as a good (better) quality drink for the upper classes as large distillers force lesser small-time producers out of business. ‘Old Tom’ style of gin named, popular theory relates to Dudley Bradstreet, a Londoner who sold gin illegally from his house by erecting a sign outside his house in the shape of a cat, with a pipe leading from the cats paw back in to his house. A thirsty customer would deposit their money, call out “Puss, give me two pennyworth of gin!”, and Bradsheet would pour them a shot of gin down the pipe. This sign of a tom cat allegedly resulted in the gin becoming known as Old Tom.

Old Tom is typically sweet due to the addition of sugar to cover up unpleasant flavours.

Old Tom Gin Advertising Poster

1793 - Plymouth Gin begins production.

1796 - Gordon’s Gin founded by Scotsman Alexander Gordon. He established a distillery in Goswell Road, Finsbury. By 1800 Gordon’s Gin had made its name both at home and abroad, thanks to the sailors of the British Navy who carried it to all corners of the world.

1820 - Beefeater distillery opens.

1825 - The Gin and Tonic cocktail invented when British officers in the Indian Army decided to mix their bitter antimalarial tonic with a bit of sugar, lime and of course - gin.

1800’s/Victorian - The industrial revolution kicks in, suddenly the public are a united workforce and they want to spend their money on better things than poisoned gin. The remaining gin shops up their game as Gin Palaces, large luxurious dedicated permises for the sale of gin. Until this point most sale of gin had occured through private residences, Gin Palaces formed the modern day restaurants and pubs.

A Gin Palace

Despite the gin houses, Gins popularity continues to waver, due to the import of higher quality rum.

1826 - Robert Stein invents the column still.

1830 - Charles Tanqueray sets up his distillery in Bloomsbury.

Doctor Johann Gottlieb Benjamin Siegert serving as a surgeon in the British army starts exporting his ‘Angostura’ tonic to the British Navy. The Navy mix the bitter tasting medicine with gin and call it ‘Pink Gin’

1831 - Aeneas Coffey a patent office cleric improves upon Stein’s design on the column still and patents the Coffey still. This dawns a new age of much lighter purer spirits due to the coffey still’s ability to rectify alcohol to a very high ABV.

Diagram of a Coffey Still - simple eh?!

1856 - George Dodd writes:

“The Public-Houses of London, as distinguished from hotels, inns, chop-houses, eating-houses, and coffee-rooms, have undergone great changes within the last few years. They have been transformed from dingy pot-houses into splendid gin-palaces, from painted deal to polished mahogany, from small crooked panes of glass to magnificent crystal sheets, from plain useful fittings to costly luxurious adornments.”

1862 - “Professor” Jerry Thomas a bartender at San Francisco’s Occidental Hotel submits a gin based cocktail similar to a Martini to The Bon Vivant’s Guide.

1865 - Cruchley’s London: A Handbook for Strangers writes:

“The quantity of spirits and compounds consumed in London of late years is supposed to amount to 15,417,000 gallons, of which by far the largest portion is gin; Scotch and Irish whisky, with rum and brandy, make up the total.”

BY KENNY MEADOWS

1870 - Tastes and trends in London are moving towards much drier gins.

A gold miner pays for a bottle of whiskey in the town of Martinez in the US with a nugget so big he demands an extra drink. The bartender, Julio Richelieu, dubs it a ‘Martinez’. Around the same time the traveller walked into Thomas’ bar in San Francisco and was presented with a drink also called a Martinez… who invented it? I wish I knew.

1888 - Ramos Gin Fizz invented by Henry C. Ramos in his Imperial Cabinet bar, New Orleans.

1890 - Sir (then a doctor) Thomas Gimlette a British Naval surgeon observed that limes, containing vitamin C, offered significant protection against scurvy, a then common ailment amongst sailors. In combining lime juice with gin, he sought an attractive way to encourage sailors to imbibe lime juice as an anti-scorbutic.

1915 - Raffles invents the Singapore Sling

Old Raffles Poster

1919 - Negroni mixed in Caffè Casoni in Florence, Italy. It was named for Count Camillo Negroni, the man who invented it by asking a bartender (Fosco Scarselli) to add gin to the Americano.

1920 - 1934 - The Volstead Act (Prohibition) goes into effect in USA. Saloons and bars give way to speakeasies. Gin, the easiest spirit to produce illegally, is king and contributes to the rising popularity of the cocktail because of its smooth, dry quality and because it mixes well with other flavours.

1930 - Savoy Cocktail book published, over half of the cocktails are gin based, including a drink entitled ‘White Lady’

1960’s - The gin bug hits Spain, in the form of ‘Gin & Cola’, Spain still remains one of the largest gin markets, with many distilleries producing London Dry.

Additions:

• Domkaat - I’m not sure if this is an Appelation in itself or just a spirit that is similar to gin. Germany produces a Genever-style Gin called Dornkaat in the North Sea coast region of Frisia. This spirit is lighter in body and more delicate in flavor than both Dutch Genever and English dry Gin. German Gin is usually served straight up and cold. I’ve not tried it myself and I can’t find any solid info on the history of it either.

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In all liklehood I will add some more to this over time as I read more etc. (Additions are in blue writing) If you (yes, you) have anything to add which is relevant and interesting then feel free to put it in the comments and i’ll update the main post. Equally if there is anything you deem inaccurate I’d like to know too.

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Sources

http://bunnyhugs.org/
http://www.stillcooker.com
www.brandrepublic.com
http://www.victorianlondon.org/
www.wikipedia.org
http://ohgo.sh
www.cocktailtimes.com
www.ukbg.co.uk
www.parliament.org
Difford’s Guide to Cocktails #6 - Simon Difford
Gin: The Much Lamented death of Madame Genever
The Savoy Cocktail Book - Harry Craddock
New American Bartender’s Handbook - Dave Broom