Gin: The style evolution

Refined, classy, elegant, cool. A modern perception of the Gin enthusiast. A glass of ice, 50mL of small batch Gin, 150mL of craft tonic, and a garnish to top. The panacea to a long week on a hot Friday night. Where did Gins polished character come from? Images of Gatesby-esque underground jazz bars in prohibition era New York? Perhaps. Looking back a little further, Gin drinking was not always viewed through the same rosy lens.

Early 18th Century: Insatiable beginnings

Drunk for a penny, dead drunk for tuppence, clean straw for nothing. In the 1720s, Gin consumption in England spread like wildfire. With taxes per gallon on Gin a fraction of that on strong beer, it became the drink of the poor. By 1726, there were 6000 registered establishments where Gin could be purchased in London alone.

Mid 18th Century: Law and order

At this time, the average Londoner was estimated to consumer marginally more Gin than their modern counterparts at 14 gallons of spirit per year. Beginning in 1729, the government began to pass a series of largely unsuccessful laws to regulate the Gin market, which instead of curbing consumption, drove Gin distribution into the hands of bootleggers, subsequently providing a handy source of additional income for many. National Gin consumption snowballed, and in 1736 the government passed a law, taxing Gin retailers £50 per year in addition to the tax already paid by the distillers. The attempt to enforce these laws led to widespread rioting in 1737.

War in the 1740s led to the repeal of prior taxes on Gin as demand soared, and once again in 1751 the widespread consumption of the spirit prompted renewed calls to regulate it’s production again. The laws seemed to have the desired effect, with annual Gin production declining ~75% over the following decade. Though over the same period beer production boomed with reform in brewing taxation…

19th Century: Distillation revolution and Empire

It should be noted that prior to the distillation revolution in the 1830s, Gin was not the same spirit as we drink today. The spirit was more akin to moonshine and mixed with ingredients that would make the modern consumer shudder. The emergence of the distillation column in the 1830s drastically improved the quality of spirits across the world, allowing for the inclusion of Gin with wider varieties of botanicals. With this development Gin Palaces blossomed, supporting the newfound reputation as a gentleman’s drink.

With the growth of the Colonial British Empire, the anti-malarial Quinine was given to soldiers positioned in tropical regions. Exceptionally bitter, Quinine was added to carbonated water to make it more palatable. Soldiers of the British East India Company, already supplied with a ration of Gin, found that mixing the smooth spirit with tonic water, sugar and citrus, made their medicine go down much smoother. Eventually, the cocktail made its way back to England and onto the menus of Gin Palaces, albeit with slightly less quinine…

In the next installment of this blog series, we will look at Gin in the 20th and 21st centuries. Going from the prohibition darling to a high-fidelity modern obsession.