Gin in the United Kingdom
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Gin in the United Kingdom has a long history.[1]Considered a national drink, it has long been produced and enjoyed. English gin is known for the London Dry style, which is the most popular form of gin style in the world. English gin comes in a variety of styles, with over 1,800 gin brands and a growing gin craft scene. Gins are also popular in Scotland and Wales, each producing a few brands and unique taste profiles.[2]
Gin really took off after the 1688 Glorious Revolution and the following import bans on French brandy.[3] During the Gin Craze from 1695 to 1735, it became England's go-to alcoholic drink.[4][5] Gin is made using a variety of herbal ingredients and comes in many different styles and brands. Besides juniper, it often gets its flavor from herbs, spices, floral notes, or fruits, sometimes all mixed together. A classic way to enjoy gin is in a gin and tonic, where it's typically paired with tonic water. Additionally, gin serves as a base for flavored liqueurs, like sloe gin, which is made by adding fruit, flavorings, and sugar.[6]
Gin emerged in England in varying forms by the early 17th century, and at the time of the Stuart Restoration, enjoyed a brief resurgence. Gin became vastly more popular as an alternative to brandy, when William III and Mary II became co-sovereigns of England, Scotland and Ireland after leading the Glorious Revolution.[7] Particularly in crude, inferior forms, it was more likely to be flavoured with turpentine.[8] Historian Angela McShane has described it as a "Protestant drink" as its rise was brought about by a Protestant king, fuelling his armies fighting the Catholic Irish and French.[9]
Gin drinking in England rose significantly after the government allowed unlicensed gin production, and at the same time imposed a heavy duty on all imported spirits such as French brandy. This created a larger market for poor-quality barley that was unfit for brewing beer, and in 1695–1735 thousands of gin shops sprang up throughout England, a period known as the Gin Craze.[10] Because of the low price of gin compared with other drinks available at the time and in the same location, gin began to be consumed regularly by the poor.[11] Of the 15,000 drinking establishments in London, not including coffee shops and drinking chocolate shops, over half were gin shops. Beer maintained a healthy reputation as it was often safer to drink the brewed ale than unclean plain water.[12] Gin, though, was blamed for various social problems, and it may have been a factor in the higher death rates which stabilised London's previously growing population.[13] The reputation of the two drinks was illustrated by William Hogarth in his engravings Beer Street and Gin Lane (1751), described by the BBC as "arguably the most potent anti-drug poster ever conceived".[14][15]
The Gin Act 1736 imposed high taxes on retailers and led to riots in the streets. The prohibitive duty was gradually reduced and finally abolished in 1742. The Gin Act 1751 was more successful, but it forced distillers to sell only to licensed retailers and brought gin shops under the jurisdiction of local magistrates.[16] Gin in the 18th century was produced in pot stills, and thus had a maltier profile than modern London gin.[17] In London in the early 18th century, much gin was distilled legally in residential houses (there were estimated to be 1,500 residential stills in 1726) and was often flavoured with turpentine to generate resinous woody notes in addition to the juniper.[18] As late as 1913, Webster's Dictionary states without further comment, "'common gin' is usually flavoured with turpentine".[19]
The 18th century gave rise to a style of gin referred to as Old Tom gin, which is a softer, sweeter style of gin, often containing sugar. Old Tom gin faded in popularity by the early 20th century.[20] The invention and development of the column still (1826 and 1831)[21] made the distillation of neutral spirits practical, thus enabling the creation of the "London dry" style that evolved later in the 19th century.[22] In tropical British colonies gin was used to mask the bitter flavour of quinine, which was the only effective anti-malarial compound. Quinine was dissolved in carbonated water to form tonic water; the resulting cocktail is gin and tonic, although modern tonic water contains only a trace of quinine as a flavouring. Gin is a common base spirit for many mixed drinks, including the martini. Secretly produced "bathtub gin" was available in the speakeasies and "blind pigs" of Prohibition-era America as a result of the relatively simple production.[23]
Sloe gin is traditionally described as a liqueur made by infusing sloes (the fruit of the blackthorn) in gin, although modern versions are almost always compounded from neutral spirits and flavourings. Similar infusions are possible with other fruits, such as damsons. Another popular gin-based liqueur with a longstanding history is Pimm's No.1 Cup (25% alcohol by volume (ABV)), which is a fruit cup flavoured with citrus and spices.[24][25]
