From medicine to Martini

Thursday, 19th November 2009

Geraldine Coates looks at the magnificent cornucopia of ingredients found in a bottle of gin

One of the most surprising things about gin’s current revival is how few people are aware of the complex array of exotic ingredients inside a bottle of gin. And just how closely connected England’s great national spirit is to other world elements such as witchcraft, superstition, bizarre folklore and ancient healing.

All gins are made with a neutral grain spirit that is then redistilled in a copper pot still with a range of natural flavourings – berries, barks, seeds, peels, roots and flowers – known collectively as ‘the botanicals’. It’s a craft process that can be traced in a direct line, via Dutch genever, to the great European monasteries of the Early Middle Ages where monks who had learned the secrets of distilling from the writings of Islamic scholars and ancient Greek texts, distilled what grew in their physic gardens to make cures for all manner of disease.

Their elixirs included ingredients that are in every modern gin’s botanical recipe – juniper berries, angelica root, coriander seeds, citrus peel and orris root. Juniper for example: it’s found in all gins and indeed is the botanical that gives gin its signature piney, camphor, lavender taste. The earliest recorded medicinal use of juniper berries occurs in an Egyptian papyrus dating back to around 1550 bc in a recipe to cure tapeworm infestations. Greek athletes in the first Olympiads used them as the equivalent of today’s steroids whilst Roman gladiators applied juniper oil to their wounds. Juniper was also used to treat arthritis, kidney disease and digestive problems. In the 14th century, when the Black Death stalked Europe, people wore masks filled with the berries as a prophylactic against the deadly disease. This was not quite as daft as you might think; today vets use oil of juniper to prevent fleas and it’s now well known that oriental rat fleas, carried by black rats, spread the bubonic plague.

The second most important ingredient in gin is coriander – its fresh, gingery spiciness is instantly recognisable. Historically, coriander has been cultivated since Ancient Egyptian times and was reputedly an aphrodisiac. The Romans first introduced this herb to Britain as a flavouring and also to preserve meat.

Then there’s angelica: its dried, shredded root is an essential part of the gin recipe where it imparts an earthy, pungent flavour. Once, this too was believed to cure the plague as revealed by an angel, hence its name – it was also reputed to guard against witchcraft. In Chinese medicine angelica, known as Dong Quai, is still considered a magical cure-all.

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