Mother's Ruin, Mother's Day gin tasting

A brief history of gin - aka Mother’s Ruin

Gin is predicated by the use of juniper and it is the monks of the 13th century who we have to thank for this. These guys were distilling sharp, fiery, alcoholic tonics (aqua vitae) with juniper believing it to have medicinal qualities.

In fact the medicinal use of juniper in doctor’s kits has a long history dating through the centuries; for example, the Romans were using it for purification and the Plague doctors of the 1300s stuffed the beaks of their plague masks with juniper to supposedly protect them from the Black Death.

The Dutch and Belgians took it to a commercial level with the creation of the drink Jenever. The earliest known written reference to Jenever appears in the 13th century encyclopaedic work Der Naturen Bloeme (Bruges), with the earliest printed recipe for Jenever dating from 16th century, using malt wine, juniper berries and herbs.

It was the Brits who then took it to the next level and the word Gin is an anglicism of Jenever. It is thought that the term Dutch courage stems from the use of Jenever for its calming effects before battle by English soldiers in the Eighty Years’ War.

Gin craze of the early 1700s in England

William of Orange became king of England in 1688 and gin surged in popularity as an alternative to Brandy which had been restricted through law due to political and religious disputes with the French.

At the same time affluence was on the up - as the price of food dropped and income grew meaning that people had more disposable income to spend on drinking.

By 1721 however, Middlesex magistrates were already decrying gin as "the principal cause of all the vice & debauchery committed among the inferior sort of people".

Daniel Defoe (who wrote Robinson Crusoe and was known as novelist, journalist, merchant, pamphleteer and spy) commented - "the Distillers have found out a way to hit the palate of the Poor, by their new fashion'd compound waters called Geneva, so that the common People seem not to value the French-brandy as usual, and even not to desire it".

'Mother's Ruin' - As more women became hooked on gin between 1720 and 1757, this led to the mistreatment of their children and a rise in prostitution. Women became more addicted to gin than their male counterparts – gaining the juniper-based spirit the nickname 'Mother's Ruin'.

Daniel Defoe (who had originally campaigned for the liberalisation of distilling) later complained that drunken mothers were threatening to produce a "fine spindle-shanked generation" of children.

The Gin Acts of 1736, 1743 and 1751 were passed to try and restrict the consumption of gin.

A licence to sell and make gin was increased to around $8000 - but this just forced the movement further underground. The 1736 act also made it illegal to sell gin in quantities less than two gallons, and anyone caught breaking the law could be fined, whipped, or imprisoned. This resulted in the creation of the Puss & Mew vending machine (a world first). This took the form of a large cat into the mouth of which a coin could be slipped. If the cat meowed the coin would be accepted and then gin would emerge from a tube in the cat’s paw.

The Act of 1751 dropped the licence price and required licensees to trade from premises rented for at least £10 a year. This, and merchants requiring a license to sell, brought the drink into a slightly more reputable phase and consumption began to decrease.