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The History of Gin

Gin likely traces its origins to liquors produced back in the Middle Ages, with references to a spirit flavored with “genever” referenced in a 13th Century Flemish manuscript. By the 1600s, the Dutch were producing gin in earnest, with hundreds of distilleries in the city of Amsterdam alone. It didn’t take long for this lovely liquor to hop across the English Channel in a big way. In the latter half of the 17th Century and in the early years of the 18th Century, gin rapidly gained popularity in England, cementing the association it still enjoys with that nation. Gin remained popular with the Brits, notable for its use by soldiers and colonials living in lands prone to malaria infections: gin was excellent at masking the unpleasant, bitter flavor of the anti-malarial alkaloid quinine, a necessity for the susceptible foreigners. This medical elixir developed into the Gin & Tonic we know and love to this day.
In the modern era gin has seen a resurgence in popularity as mixology has gone mainstream. From the classic martini to the Gimlet to the Tom Collins, the same cocktails that knocked F. Scott Fitzgerald and his cronies cockeyed are again being shaken and stirred up at taverns everywhere.