Gin

 German Version French Version

Gin is a spirit manufactured from wheat or rye grain under additive of juniper berries, under addition of further herbs and spices (so-called botanica, up to 15 different), e.g. coriander, angelica root, orange blooms.

The additive from sprit to the distillate is permitted. The alcohol content amounts to at least 37.5 Vol%, particularly high-quality marks contained between 44 and 50 Vol% alcohol.

Gin is produced preferentially in Great Britain. From Germany comes the trade mark “Dornkaat”. Also in Spain and the USA gin is manufactured. In the Netherlands it carries the designation genever (Dutch: juniper berries), in Belgium jenever.

Inferior qualities are produced by direct additive of the juniper berries and botanica to the grain distillate. For top qualities with the last burning alcohol steam is led over the dry juniper berries and botanica, whereby only the flavours and etheric oils are taken up by the alcohol. Gin is used preferentially for mix beverages (cocktails). The mixture of Gin and Wormwood is well-known as Martini. A Longdrink is the Gin Fizz (gin, lemon juice and suggar syrup, filled up with soda water).

History

Gin originated in the Netherlands in the 17th century and become very popular in Great-Britain after the government allowed unlicensed gin production and at the same time imposed a heavy duty on all imported spirits (Gin Act of 1736), remaining until 1742. In this time the production of gin reached the sixfold of the beer production.