Gin and its Botanicals
Gin has been a popular—sometimes too popular—British drink for almost 350 years. It has changed hugely over this period, but the common thread is that the predominant flavour is juniper berries, and the production of gin rests on the two pillars of (1) distillation and (2) the extraction of flavours and aromas from botanicals.
You can trace gins lineage back to ancient history and the development of the Alembic Still which is still used in craft gin production today.
We explore this in our recent article; The Ancient Origins of Distillation, and we will chart the evolution and turbulent history of gin in the UK later on in this series, but for now we want to focus on what makes gin unique, it’s botanicals;
Much like distillation, many of the spices which contribute to the aroma of gin can be traced back thousands of years. Coriander, despite not being native to Egypt, has been found in several Egyptian tombs, including Tutankhamun’s, whilst the ancient Egyptian incense Kyphi used a locally varying blend of botanicals, often including cardamom and cassia, to scent clothes and purify the air.
Cardamom and cassia were among the many spices travelling along the silk roads from China as early as 2000BCE and, in its way, gin evokes the ancient trade routes which connected southern Europe and the Middle East with the exotic flavours of unknown lands to the east.
Imported spices would have been hugely expensive, but even locally cultivated herbs and spices would have been highly valued and used for its ritual and medicinal purposes. Anise, first cultivated in Egypt and the Middle East before being brought to Europe, was believed to act as an aphrodisiac and was used to prevent nightmares.
Angelica, originating in Syria, flourished in cooler climates and throughout Europe came to be considered one of the most powerful herbs. The boiled roots were applied to wounds by the Aleut people to speed healing, and folklore from across northern Europe speaks of an array of medicinal benefits such as purifying blood, protecting against contagion, and as a remedy for poison.
As for juniper itself, the sweet aroma of burning juniper was traditionally used to ward off evil spirits and purify the air, whilst its berries have long been valued for their medicinal benefits. They were mentioned alongside caraway seeds, elderberry and coriander in an ancient treatise on the treatment of disease known as the Papyrus Eber. Written about 1550 BCE, but believed to be copied from earlier texts, this is one of the oldest preserved medical documents in the world and an extensive record of Egyptian medicine.
Jump forward three thousand years and juniper and the main ingredient of Genever (or Jenever), a medicine used in the Low Countries to treat stomach ailments, lumbargo and gout. And it was from Genever that modern-day gin gradually evolved.