The London Gin Craze and Beyond

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Speaking of Audible, /u/jmaxmiller should narrate an audio book. His recitations of historic notes are delightful.

👍︎︎ 15 👤︎︎ u/tnick771 📅︎︎ Jan 26 2021 🗫︎ replies

The drink is not my favorite since we prefer, but it is oddly smooth. Now if you have any kind of aversion to black licorice flavor, stay away :x

👍︎︎ 8 👤︎︎ u/worldagainstjose 📅︎︎ Jan 26 2021 🗫︎ replies

If anyone's interested, genever/jenever is pronounced kind of like "yen-ay-ver" in Dutch. Or at least, that's the way I've always heard it pronounced.

And I hate to sound like a stick in the mud, but I actually think the version in the video (what Bols sells in the US) isn't a very good jenever, although I'm hardly an expert. It tastes way less malty than most old-style jenevers I've had and has more botanicals. They also upped the alcohol content (Dutch jenever is usually 35% alcohol, that's 42%), which makes it less smooth. I bought a bottle expecting something like Bols Corenwijn (based on Bols' description of it being an old recipe) and was pretty disappointed by it. I'm not sure why they made the changes they did, other than to try to make it more like a fancier gin for the US market.

Sadly, jenever that isn't the US version of Bols is pretty hard to find in the US. As crazy as it sounds, I actually think Irish whiskey might be as close of a substitute as can easily be found here. It tends to have more of the smooth, malty taste an old-style jenever has; young-style jenver is more like malty vodka.

👍︎︎ 3 👤︎︎ u/BadnameArchy 📅︎︎ Jan 27 2021 🗫︎ replies

It was cool to discover 5 days after viewing his Ketchup interview the story behind the drink Max was sipping.

I've read other accounts of the gin craze but Max's account was the only one that really connected all the dots.

Good stuff.

👍︎︎ 2 👤︎︎ u/wolframite 📅︎︎ Jan 27 2021 🗫︎ replies

Great episode- gin and absinthe are favorites of mine, and both have a history of demonization by the powers that be (always for the ‘benefit’ of the morals of the poor, because rich powerful people don’t worry about their own excesses, only those that work for them). I’d love to see an episode on absinthe- the water, the sugar, the elaborate spoons- and why drinking it like a shot is the worst way to taste it.

👍︎︎ 1 👤︎︎ u/foremastjack 📅︎︎ Jan 26 2021 🗫︎ replies

Very enjoyable and informative, thanks!

👍︎︎ 1 👤︎︎ u/613vc420 📅︎︎ Jan 27 2021 🗫︎ replies

I don't drink alcohol. But I also don't cook. I found the history part of this as interesting as the history part of any of the cooking videos. So it seems like the actual topic does not matter that much as long as Max gives it his history coverage.

👍︎︎ 1 👤︎︎ u/AgentElman 📅︎︎ Feb 02 2021 🗫︎ replies
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Welcome to Tasting history with Max Miller where  today we will be Drinking History with Max Miller.   I am Max Miller and believe it or not I  have not had anything to drink yet today.   Luckily, gin is my favorite spirit so I will  be showing you how to make a fascinating   gin cocktail from 1884. So thank you to Audible  for sponsoring this video as we follow gin's journey from Dutch battlefields to the London  gin craze and beyond. This time on Tasting History.   Today's recipe comes from George Winter's  1884 How to Mix Drinks Bar Keepers Handbook.   "Gin Cocktail. Two to three dashes of gum syrup, one  to two dashes of orinoco bitters, two dashes of absinthe, one wine glass holland gin. Fill with fine  ice. Stir well. Squeeze from a lemon peel on top and serve." Seems quite simple, though a lot of those  ingredients are not necessarily something that   you're going to find at most modern day liquor  stores but you can get everything online.   First we got gum syrup. Now we have simple syrup  today which is just basically sugar and water   that's been boiled, but gum syrup adds gum arabic  and supposedly gives a softer silkier texture   to the cocktail we'll see. Next up orinoco bitters. Now these are named after a Venezuelan river so naturally they were made in New England, and in the Barkeeper's Handbook there is an ad that claims   they're superior to any angostura in the world.  Angostura bitters being what we typically use today. I have both so i'm going to do a little bit  of a taste test here. First, angostura bitters which   my palette should already know. Very bitter. A little bit of a cinnamon-y quality to them. Quite interesting wouldn't want  too many. And now for the orinoco bitters.   I feel like uh Mary Poppins dulling out her  spoonful of sugar. ♪ Just a spoonful of bitters ♪ Very different. Gosh it has more like a a  spicy cardamom flavor. They remind me, yeah   very much of like Indian food. I kind of like  them better maybe they should make a comeback.  Then we have absinthe La Fée Verte - the green fairy. A largely misunderstood and oft-romanticized liquor   that supposedly tastes like fennel  but I think we should give it a shot.   Now this has been outlawed in the United States  for 80 years and I think it was probably 13 years   14 years ago they allowed it to make a comeback. So  i'm going to just take a tiny tiny little bit here. Oh yeah that that tastes like black licorice. A  little bit goes a long way. What's interesting is   as you can see, maybe, it's clear but when you add  it to another liquor it becomes foggy and that's   really when the green fairy kind of shows u. And lastly genever, or jenever, or genièvre or genieve.  They all work. And a lot of people today would  say that this is not a gin but we'll show you why   historically it absolutely is and technically it  absolutely is. So if you're going to have that   argument which i'm sure many people will please  have it in the comments section. Now I love gin, and right away I can tell this is not going to  taste like gin but let's let's give it a shot. *Grows hair on chest It's actually really, really smooth. You can  taste the juniper which is essential for gin   and we'll get into that but there's  also like a carmeliness to it almost-   I don't know. Almost like a hint of whiskey was  added, or some something like that.    It's quite nice, quite smooth but if somebody orders a  gin and tonic don't put this in there. Now there are tons of types of gin in the world. You got tom gin, you got botanical gin, your classic London dry,   and there's even one called milk gin. My favorite  being Birth Is Revenge. If you can get it, get it.   Sadly I don't have time to go into all of the gins  of the world but if you want a gin deep dive might   I suggest The Book of Gin on Audible. Audible is truly one of my favorite things in this world. I have belonged to Audible for now over 10 years and  I listen to audiobooks almost daily. They're great   because I do a lot of reading research-wise for  the show so when I'm able to do the research or   even just listen for fun you know when I'm out  on a walk or in the car it's just such a relief   on my eyes and on my brain frankly. And recently  they've added their Plus catalog so in addition   to your monthly audiobook credit you also get  access to thousands of additional audiobooks as   well as podcasts, Audible originals, and these sleep  tracks which I really, really need to try because [Jose snores] I am starting to notice I'm getting bags as people  have pointed out. But lately I have been listening   to Sapiens A Brief History of Humankind. It is absolutely fascinating and the narrator Derek Perkins has the most soothing British accent. Frankly you will feel smarter after listening to it.  So visit audible.com/tastinghistory  or text tasting history to 500-500 to start   your free 30-day trial. There's also a link in  the description audible.com/tastinghistory   and speaking of Tasting History before I taste  this historical cocktail let us talk about the   history of gin while i finish up what i've  already poured. Nothing should go to waste. So what is gin? It's just an alcoholic  liquor made by distilling grain mash with juniper berries. Everything else is  gravy (don't put gravy in your gin though ).  Now nobody knows exactly when that distilled grain  alcohol came about but in the west at least it was   most likely made using an alembic still and nobody  knows who invented the alembic still but the two   leading candidates are both women with interesting  names from between the first and third century AD.   Cleopatra the alchemist or another alchemist named  Mary the Jewess. Probably did not come up with that name herself. Either way next time you take a shot  you can thank a woman from the ancient near east.  So they used alembic stills to perform alchemy  to make alcoholic spirits all coming from Arabic words. And really it was the Arabic world where  that flourished until European alchemists in the   middle ages started using them to make aquavita  or the water of life which is basically just   pure alcohol. Now for the juniper berries mentions  of their medicinal qualities especially when added   to alcohol are mentioned in Dioscorides from the 1st  century AD as well as the 11th century Compendium Solernita. Where Benedictine monks would use it  for chest ailments and later on it was used to   cure the black death though it didn't work and for  other cures that didn't work for the plague see my video up here. But the first Dutch mention, and  it's important that its Dutch, we'll get there,   was in 1269 when Jacob von Maerlant wrote "He who wants to be rid of stomach pain used juniper cooked in rainwater. He who has cramps cooked juniper in wine. It's good against the pain." Side note that is from the document called Der naturen bloeme. One manuscript of which has my favorite image of an elephant. So you got your aquavita ,you got your juniper  berries, put them together and what have you got   bippity boppity gin, except it wasn't called gin  yet. In an early writing from 1552 it's called   genièvre later spelled jenever, or genever. Now for much of the  16th and 17th century the Protestant Dutch were   fighting for their independence from Catholic  Spain. It was a complicated time called the 80 Years War which encompassed the 12 Years Truce, and  the 30 Years War. Terrible marketing, lots of brand confusion. So the story goes that at some point in  that time when the English were fighting alongside   their Protestant brethren against Catholic Spain  and religion is very important in this, they   noticed that the Dutch would take a swig of genever  right before they went into battle. Hence the term   Dutch courage... probably. Sometimes it comes  from a different war and sometimes it...   you know it might not have happened at all  but it's a good story and i'm sticking to it.   Either way the English brought it back home where  one of its main uses is documented by Samuel Pepys.   "I took strong water made of juniper. Whether that  or anything else of my draft this morning did it I cannot tell, but I had a couple of stools forced  after it." I don't see that appearing in a Tanqueray ad any time soon, but the Dutch would soon show  England that there was more to gin than just   its diuretic capabilities because a few decades  later when the Catholic James II was excised   from the throne of England he was replaced by the  Dutch Protestant William of Orange of William and   mary fame, and being Dutch he drank genver so it  became quite a popular cordial amongst the upper crust.   Also he imposed harsh taxes on imports  from Catholic countries which included France,   so goodbye wine and brandy. Hello gin. And the  drink got another boost when in 1690 parliament   passed an act for encouraging the distilling of  brandy and spirits from corn and some people made   brandy but most people made gin because it was a  lot cheaper. So cheap that a pint of gin actually   became cheaper than a pint of ale or beer. There are stories of people drinking a pint of gin a day. Do you know what happens if you drink a pint of  gin a day? Well Bernard Mandeville in 1714 gives us an idea. "Nothing is more destructive, either in  regard to the health or the vigilance and industry of the poor, than the infamous liquor, the name  of which, derived from Juniper in Dutch,   is now, by frequent use, and the laconic spirit of the  nation... shrunk into the monosyllable, intoxicating   gin that charms the inactive, the desperate  and crazy of either sex, and makes the starving   sot behold his rags and nakedness with stupid  indolence, or banter both in senseless laughter,   and more insipid jests! It is a fiery lake that  sets the brain in flame, burns up the entrails,   and scorches every part within." Clearly a whiskey drinker but with that last part he was actually   kind of right because with everybody and their  mother making gin the quality really took a dive.   People were adding sulfuric acid and turpentine  in quantities larger than than one probably should.  And it actually kicked off something called the  London gin craze where fully one-fourth of the   population of London was involved somehow in  either the production or distribution of gin.   During frost fairs, which were affairs that took  place on the river Thames when it would freeze over, it was a lot colder back then, hot gin and  gingerbread were sold to all as clearly most   of London did not agree with that stick in the mud  Bernard Mandeville at first. But very soon gin took a bit of a hit in the reputation department. First of all it had gone from being drank by the king,   to being drank by the poor because it was  so cheap. And then it really took a hit in 1734 when Judith Defour was hanged at Tyburn. Her crime? Drunk on gin and unable to afford any more   she and a friend picked up her two-year-old  daughter from the workhouse where she had been   and had been given new clothes, and in the words  of Judith from her own trial, "We took the child into the fields and stripped it, and tied a linen handkerchief hard about its neck to keep it from crying, and then laid it in a ditch. And after that  we went together and sold the coat and stay for a shiling, and the petticoat and stockings for  a groat. We parted the money and joined for a quartern of gin." That incident understandably really  shook London to its core and forced Parliament to   pass the Gin Act of 1736 which did put some taxes  and regulation on who could actually make it.   You had to have a license but it didn't really work  because the gin craze just kept on crazing,   but public opinion really turned a corner in 1751 when William Hogarth printed two engravings called   Beer Street and Gin Lane. In Beer Street women are seen selling fish and reading, while smiling men paint works of art and build new buildings beside which a wealthy woman is carried through the street  in a sedan chair. Meanwhile in Gin Lane a mother  with syphilitic sores mindlessly drops her child   down a stairwell as she reaches for a pinch of  snuff. While a man nearby shares a bone with a dog.   Buildings are crumbling and a barber has hanged  himself as no one can afford his services,  for they've spent all of their coin on gin. Perhaps most disturbing though is the man   dancing in the street carrying a child impaled on  a pole now...   Surely there was some exaggeration in Hogarth's work, but it did what it was meant  to do and Parliament passed another gin act   which actually worked this time, and gin lost favor  and the gin craze ended, but it actually made for an interesting chapter in gin's history which was the underground selling of Old Tom Gin.   Essentially a bartender would put like a plaque of an old black tomcat on the outside of the bar like out on   the street, and then there would be a little tube  going from the cat's paw or sometimes its mouth   into the bar. Somebody would walk up put a coin  into the cat and then it would come into the bar,   and the bartender would pour a shot of this Old  Tom Gin which was a sweeter gin than the   modern London dry gin. It's actually really quite  nice uh it would go down and then the person would   be waiting there with their glass or just their  mouth to catch it. Kind of interesting, and it was   actually that style of gin that was really popular  during the 19th century before London-style dry   gin really took over. It was also the mid-19th century that gin started to make a bit of a comeback with gin palaces frequented by the upper  middle class, Dickens described them as perfectly   dazzling when contrasted with the darkness and  dirt we have just left. It also became a popular drink with the military, because in certain parts  of the world where they were having problems with   malaria they were given quinine, and/or quinine  and they would it was really bitter so they would   add a little bit of tonic water and a little bit  of gin in there to kill the flavor hence the GNT,   or the gin and tonic, and you put a little bit of  lime in there and it helps with scurvy too.   That's actually where the gimlet started was they  found if they put the lime into the gin before   they even left for port it would preserve for a  lot longer. Now in the U.S. gin had been popular   for quite some time but it really took off when it  was banned, because in the 1920s during Prohibition   bathtub gin became popular for the same reason  it had been popular 200 years earlier in England.   It was cheap and easy to make. Again, it tasted  horrible but that is where we get a lot of the   wonderful cocktails that we know today made as  a way to cover up the taste of the bad gin   but when it comes to taste lots of flavored gins  have popped up over the years including sloe gin   made with sloe berries, and one of my favorites  Pimms, which has added citrus and spices,   but if you have a truly quality gin it's really  all you need because in the words of Winston Churchill  "I would like to observe the vermouth from  across the room while I drink my martin." Yeah I know I can't do Churchill, but unlike Churchill's  martini our cocktail today is definitely mixed,   and I am ready to do it. So once you have all of  your ingredients just mix them together in a glass.   Note that the 19th century measurement a wine  glass of holland gin is only about one and a half ounces or a jigger. It varies depending on  when and where it is but it is not one of these, [don't limit yourself - Jose]  so don't fill this up with gin. That is for a  different kind of cocktail. Then add some ice, squeeze a little lemon rind over it, and bottoms up  the gin cocktail of 1884. Cheers! Very aromatic. Oh I like that. Definitely go light on the absinthe, like really  light, because that is going to cut through more   than anything else that really strong licorice  fennel flavor, but it's really, really nice and   smooth and when I say smooth, I mean physically  smooth and I think it's because of that gum syrup, the gum arabic. It's almost... slick but not in a weird way it's really quite nice.  I usually go for a sweeter drink. This is not  that sweet. You could probably make it sweeter   adding even more gum syrup but I already  put in quite a bit but it's it's really good   I would drink this, though if I  went into a bar today and ordered this   I would um get kicked out unless I was at one of  those hipster bars maybe in Los Feliz. So make sure to follow me on Instagram, Twitter and TikTokand. Don't forget to sign up for your free trial of Audible at the link in the description. And I will see you next time on Drinking H- Tasting History.
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Channel: Tasting History with Max Miller
Views: 421,620
Rating: undefined out of 5
Keywords: tasting history, food history, max miller, gin, gin and tonic, gin cocktail recipes, jenever, genever, history of gin, gin history, the london gin craze, how to drink, absinthe cocktail, absinthe, gin lane, london dry gin, william hogarth, what is gin, food origins, beer street and gin lane, bols gin, bols genever, history gin and tonic, hendricks gin history, old tom gin, tom gin
Id: r38ZpdaAX8c
Channel Id: undefined
Length: 16min 51sec (1011 seconds)
Published: Tue Jan 26 2021
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