It’s a brave act to add a single word to all the many thousands that have been written about the Martini. Whole books have been written about it: cultural theories have been dedicated to it: people have come to blows … Continue reading
Dutch Jenever is the first cousin of English gin. Both are juniper flavoured distillates of alcohol and they share a common ancestry and a common birthplace – the Low Countries – Holland and Belgium on today’s maps but one country until the … Continue reading
In the 19th Century the consumption of beer was actively encouraged as a counterpart to the gin mania of the previous century. By 1836 there were 56,000 licensed beer shops in England and Wales. Many of these were ramshackle dives … Continue reading
By the beginning of the eighteenth century deregulation of the English distilling industry meant that vast quantities of cheap gin were readily available and, for the first time, the English became a nation where spirits were widely drunk. The urban … Continue reading
