Posted on by

The History of Gin

Gin’s journey began in the dark laboratories of 13th century monks and the chaotic streets of Georgian London.

1. The Alchemist’s Elixir (1200s to 1600s)

Long before it was a cocktail staple, gin was a medicine. 

In the 13th century, Flemish monks distilled juniper infused spirits to combat the Black Death. Juniper was believed to be a powerful repellent against the miasma or bad air thought to spread the plague. 

Doctors famously stuffed their iconic beak masks with juniper berries to filter the air.

By the 1600s, the Dutch had refined this into Genever, a malty and whisky-like spirit. 

During the Thirty Years’ War, English soldiers noticed Dutch troops taking swigs from small bottles on their belts before charging into battle. 

This Dutch Courage was so effective that the English brought the habit home. They struggled to replicate the complex Dutch distilling process, which led to a harsher and more English style of gin.

2. The Gin Craze: A City in Chaos (1720 to 1751)

When the Dutch born William of Orange took the English throne, he deregulated domestic distilling to undermine the French brandy trade. The result was a social explosion.

  • A Still in Every Shop: By 1726, London housed an estimated 1,500 working stills. One in every four habitable buildings in the city was reportedly producing or selling gin.
  • Drunk for a Penny: Signs famously advertised that one could get Drunk for a penny, dead drunk for two pence with free straw provided for customers to pass out on.
  • The Turpentine Taint: To keep costs low, unscrupulous bathtub distillers flavoured their spirits with turpentine and sulphuric acid to mimic the resinous bite of juniper. This lethal concoction earned gin the nickname Mother’s Ruin as it was blamed for a spike in crime and a plummeting birth rate.

3. Puss ‘n’ Mew: The World’s First Vending Machine

In 1736, the government attempted to ban gin sales with a heavy tax. In response, an entrepreneur named Captain Dudley Bradstreet created a loophole. He hung a sign of a black cat, an Old Tom, in his window with a lead pipe hidden under its paw.

Passers by would whisper, Puss, give me two pennyworth of gin, and slot a coin into the cat’s mouth. Bradstreet, hidden inside, would pour a shot through the pipe.

This Puss ‘n’ Mew system allowed the sale of gin without a face to face transaction, making prosecution nearly impossible. This remains a popular theory for the origin of Old Tom Gin.

4. The Science of London Dry

The 19th century brought respectability through engineering. In 1830, Aeneas Coffey patented the Column Still. This device could produce a spirit so pure and high in alcohol that it no longer required heavy sugar or spices to mask its impurities.

This paved the way for London Dry Gin, a style defined by its clarity and botanical forward profile. This coincided with the rise of the Victorian Gin Palaces.

These were opulent, gas lit halls with etched mirrors and mahogany counters designed to move gin drinking from the gutter to the high street.

5. Quinine and the British Raj

As the British Empire expanded into tropical climates, soldiers faced a new enemy in malaria. The cure was quinine, derived from cinchona bark, but it was so bitter it was almost unpalatable.

To make their daily dose bearable, officers mixed it with soda water, sugar, lime, and their gin ration. The Gin and Tonic was born as a medicinal necessity that became a global classic.

6. The Modern Renaissance: A Return to the Barn

After decades of industrial mass production, the 21st century has seen a return to the roots of the craft. Today’s “Gin-aissance” is defined by a move back to the copper pot still and the 18th century philosophy of small batch production.

This is exactly the tradition upheld at The Henley Distillery.

Sources: