History of Gin

History of Gin
Gin is basically a distilled grain spirit flavored with extract form different plants, mainly the juniper berry. The Dutch were the first to make gin and have been doing so since the late 1500s.

Gin was invented b Franciscus de la Boe, also known as Dr. Sylvius. Dr. Sylvius was a Professor of medicine and physician at Holland’s University of Leyden. He used a juniper berry elixir known as genievere – French for juniper.

Dr. Sylvius also had medicinal benefits in mind, but his concoction was so potable that is swept the country as liquor, under the name Geneva or Genever.

He thought that juniper berries could be assist in the treatment of kidney and bladder ailments.

British soldiers sampled his elixir when returning from the wars in the Netherlands and nicknamed it “Dutch courage.” When they brought the recipe back to England, they changed the name to gen and later to gin, which soon became the national drink of England.

At one time, London alone had more than 7,000 gin places.

Cheap gin was soon being made in London from almost anything – “Make it in the morning and drink it at night” – and sold in hole-the-wall dramshop all over London.

King of England, William of Orange at the time, was from Holland had his own gin consumption became somewhat legendary; the royal banquet hall was nicknamed The Gin Palace.

The pattern repeated itself in the United States during Prohibition, when so called bathtub gin was made at home, from alcohol, juniper and glycerin. Bathtub gin too, was a poor and sometimes lethal product, and the custom arose of mixing it with something else to kill the state, thus popularizing the cocktail.

It took gin some years to outlive its tacky, but today it is a highly respected favorite.
History of Gin

The First Cocktail

The First Cocktail
The true answer is lost to history, but many stories around. Most people agree that it’s an American invention.

The earliest printed use of the term that can be verified was found in the Hudson, New York newspaper, The Balance and Columbia Repository on May 6, 1806.

The editor received many questions about the new term, present in a concession speech from a losing political candidate, and here was his response:

“Cock tail, then is a stimulating liquor, composed of spirits of any kind, sugar, water and butters – it is vulgarly called a bittered sling, and is supposed to be an excellent electioneering potion inasmuch as it renders the heart stout and bold at the same time that it fuddles the head.”

Here are some of the more colorful stories surrounding the creation of this now ubiquitous beverage:

Rumor has it that early in American history, bartenders used to pour remnants of drinks and almost empty barrels into single container, selling swigs from this mixture to patrons at a reduced price. ‘Cock’ was another name for spigot and ‘tailing’ is the last bit of alcohol, so his drink was called ‘cock tailing,’ quickly shortened to ‘cocktail’.

A similar story recollects a bartender who poured his dregs into container shaped like a rooster (or cock) and the tap was set at the cock’s tail, hence cocktail.

Some believe that an apothecary in New Orleans served his guests a mix of brandy, sugar, water and bitters in an eggcup or ‘cocquetier’ in French, which was quickly shortened to ‘cocktay’ and then ‘cocktail.’

Alcohol was often used as a medical treatment, rumored to be applied from the tip of a feather from a cock’s tail; then, when people started to drink or gargle the medicine outright, the name ‘cock’s tail’ was still used.

Betsy Ranagan ran an inn in Yorktown that was frequented by American and French soldiers after the American Revolutionary War. To impress her patrons one evening, she stole chickens from her neighbors and served mixed drinks with the chicken feathers sticking out as garnishes. As her guests became drunken and rowdy, they continue to call for more ‘cock tails’.
The First Cocktail