Today I'm having a celebration of all things gin, after all it's Gin Day so what better to time to celebrate such a venerable spirit?
Herein lies some great Gin Cocktail Recipes, a few gin quotes and a little trivia and information on this wonderfully herbal and drinkable potable.
What is gin? It's a clear alcoholic spirit distilled from grain or malt and flavored primarily with juniper berries though many other botanicals come into play. It started out, like many other spirits, as a medicinal cure, having originally been tinctures, infusions and decoctions of ethanol juniper and other herbal extracts.
If you think you don't like gin, rethink and try some of these
cocktails. If you've been infusing your vodka with things like juniper
berries, rosemary, cardamom, lemon peel or a few other botanicals you've
started making gin! Basically (and I'm probably going to get lots of
haters for this) gin is
pretty much flavored vodka. Don't believe me? Check it out, that's
what it is.
Gin is probably the biggest player of all in classic cocktails most likely from it's bastard child, bathtub* gin from Prohibition. Though most people think of gin as an English spirit it was originally from Holland. The English just stole it from them when they saw Dutch soldiers having a little genever aka "Dutch Courage" during the Thirty Years' War in the 1600s. But to give the English their due, they do well by their gins and even started a whole category called London Dry Gins.
There are more types of gin than any other spirit and we're not including "flavored" spirits here. Genevers (or Jenevers), Old Tom Gin, Plymouth Gin, London Dry Gin and New American or International Gin. Most are juniper forward except for the last group where other botanicals are more prominent than the juniper.
Gin is an acquired taste. You have to grow up and develop an adult palate to appreciate the lovely notes of all the different gins available on the market today. Once you do you'll discover a whole new world of drinks and cocktail enjoyment. In my opinion, gin is not a sipping spirit, it's a mixing spirit and is best served by a great supporting cast of fresh juices, crisp sodas, rich spices, just plucked from the garden herbs and an attitude of adventure.
So, come on a gin adventure with me today.
GIN TRIVIA:
As early as the 11th Century juniper berries were being used to flavor distilled spirits by Italian Monks.
Gin was used as a cure for the plague.
It's said that Old Tom gin got it's name from a tom cat.
Slow gin is not gin, it's a gin based liqueur flavored with sloe fruit.
Gin gets it's name from the juniper berry. The original drinking gin, genever or jenever, is from the Dutch "jeneverbes" for juniper berry. The French call juniper berries "baies de genièvre" and the Italians call them "bacche di ginepro".
Gin was added to mask the bitterness of quinine water which was used by the British as an anti-malaria drug. I was the birth of the Gin and Tonic!
* Bathtub gin was not always made in bathtubs, in fact rarely. It just got that name because of the nasty, even dangerous, home brewed versions that abounded during Prohibition, some of which did get made in a few bathtubs.
National / World Gin Day is always the 2nd Saturday in June.
