The Geneva or Gin, in English, is a spirit of corn, rye or barley grain mainly. It is the base of many cocktails, as mythical as the Dry Martini of the James Bond movies (although in literature it was a Martini Vodka).
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| What is gin made from? Everything you need to know about Geneva |
By the way, before going into the mysterious ways of obtaining gin, we can take a previous rest (and we have just started) with a curiosity. The Dry Martini was a cocktail that the upper class ladies drank, why?
On second thought, the gin is around 45º. Made with alcohols up to 96 º. The Dry Martini is made with one part of gin for ten parts of Martini. With so much Martini what they managed to do was camouflage the aroma of gin while they were very happy with such brandy.
Gin as we know it today originated as a response from English distillers to the Dutch Genever. The consequence was a brandy with more graduation and stronger aromas. Today, gins are very different from each other, taking into account the amount of ingredients used to flavor them.
The Geneva distillation process
The Geneva or Gin, in English, is a spirit of corn, rye or barley grain mainly. First we have a first fermentation of the juices of the grain and later it is distilled obtaining a brandy that is flavored with juniper berries as the main normal.
Then depending on each house, touches of other aromatic herbs or even orange peels, lyrium flowers, etc. will be added.
The reason for the juniper berries is obtained in response to the attempt of the first British distillers, who were determined to obtain a brandy similar to Genever of Dutch origin.
The best way to drink gin is to serve it alone and cold or with ice cubes. Although it is the base of numerous cocktails and combining in a fundamental way with lemon touches.
The most famous cocktails
If you have to go to a label party it will always be very good if you order a Dry Martini, it is undoubtedly a cocktail with its own label. Perhaps the best known cocktail is the Gin Fizz (one of my favorites), the glamor just for a unique night. There's a gin-based cocktail that can bring out your more urban side, the Bronx.
But if what you are looking for is a cocktail to accompany the weekend appetizer you have the Gin and it. You just have to say it for us to do any of these.
Although perhaps the most common cocktail is Gin and Tonic. Simple as well as elegant and with its own history. In the next few days do not miss it.
The most famous and curious brands
When we place ourselves in the market for spirits, we cannot avoid comparing it with wines. Gin, rum, vodka, etc.
There are 1001 brands, each giving more importance to one part of the process than another. It also depends on the ingredients to be used, the mixtures to be made, the distillation, the stills used, etc.
In the case of gin we have many important brands, also known as Premium. Although surely the most important brands that should not be missing in your glass are: Tanqueray nº Ten, Bombay Sapphire, Tanqueray, Hendricks, Citadelle, Seagrams, London Gin, G´Vine, Martin Millers, Raffles, Whitley Neill, Blackwoo's, DH Krahn, Beefeater 24, Bulldog (like my dogs), etc.
It is a world that we have to discover. Now you already know a lot of information about Geneva and only your opinion remains.
10 things you probably didn't know about gin
Before diving (figuratively) into it, let's agree on what we surely all agree on with the fashionable drink, gin: the Queen Mother was very passionate about it, it is very digestive (or at least that the waiters assure that they offer it after a sumptuous meal) and until recently, when it became part of the food repertoire of the 'hipster' culture in the form of gin and tonic, it was a demodé drink for taxi drivers and retirees.
That was until a couple of years ago it was once again vindicated by modern hosts and, following the logic of supply and demand, the glass of Larios that a few years ago cost five euros at the corner bar may have quietly risen its price until twelve. Of course, with lime shovels, premium tonics at four euros a bottle and tons of connoisseur verbiage.
Nowadays, every self-respecting urbanite is liable to become a gin expert, and even the tiniest can explain to you in less than what a cock crows which are the best high-end gins, the importance of oxygenating the liquid.
How much should the circumference of the glass measure and a thousand other things that will surely be brought to Pairo to the legions of old school men who, every night, in each corner of our country, ask for a yintoni leaning on the bar from the nearest bar. But surely neither of them knew some of these ten curious details about the history of gin.
1. The word "gin" comes from "juniperus", "juniper"
The drink is obtained by distilling the barley, flavored with juniper berries and other botanicals. It receives its name, precisely, from juniper (in English, "juniper"), or "juniperus communis".
The city of Geneva gets its name from the Celtic term "Genava", which means "estuary".
2. It is one of the drinks whose flavor can be more variable
Due to the gin production process, in which a large number of additives of vegetable origin are involved and since each distiller follows its own model, the flavor of one gin or another can be very different.
The two most important branches are the Dutch and the London; the former is less purified and tastes more like grain, while the Londoner has neither sweeteners nor colorants, which is dry for that.
3. It is not usually drunk alone
Most experts on gin remember that it is, above all, a drink to mix with others, which makes it an essential component of many cocktails.
A survey by Imbibe, an American beverage magazine, indicated that gin ranked eighth among beverages consumed alone, behind bourbon, scotch, rum, tequila, whiskey, brandy, and vodka. The reason is that the gin botanicals enhance its flavor when mixed with other liquids.
4. It was used to fight malaria
The discoverers and travelers of the eighteenth century ran the risk of contracting very diverse and dangerous diseases in their evolution through half a planet.
The bitter compound known as quinine was the ideal prevention to prevent malaria, but it had a clear problem: its unpleasant taste. The solution was as simple as mixing it with gin, which some have considered the origin of gin and tonic.
Today, the tonics have little quinine, so they will not protect us from malaria. In addition, the gin was also used to combat scurvy.
5. Philippines is its best market
The sadly devastated oceanic country is the world's largest consumer of gin, with a market for almost half (43%) of global gin production.
Gin San Miguel has been made with such an appetizing sector of the market, dispatching 22 million boxes a year, to be distributed among more than 90 million inhabitants.
Other large consumers of gin are the United Kingdom, the United States and, of course, Spain.
6. It was created in Holland, not London
Although the gin is associated with Great Britain in general and London in particular, its origin is Dutch.
It is believed to have been the work of a physicist named Franciscus Sylvius in the mid-17th century, although there is evidence of other previous appearances of a drink with similar characteristics.
Be that as it may, it was in the Netherlands that this distillate began to be commercialized with the aim of treating medical problems such as low back pain, gallstones or gout; soon after it would begin to penetrate London.
7. Decimated the population of the English capital
At the beginning of the 18th century it was quite common for gin to be distilled at home in London, due to the ease of the process. In some cases turpentine was added, and in others sulfuric acid was included during the distillation, in order to pronounce the aroma.
These and other variations ended up giving rise to thousands of poisonings that contributed to decimating the population of the less favored neighborhoods of the English capital.
8. A Martini is gin
We are so used to calling the famous green bottle Martini that we forget that this is also a cocktail made from vermouth and gin (except in the case of vodka Martini, where the Russian drink replaces gin).
9. It ended the life of Francis Scott Fitgzerald
In 1940, the once luxurious existence of the author of The Great Gatsby had been consumed in a multitude of excesses, including, of course, alcoholics.
After twenty years of unstoppable transfer of spirits, Fitzgerald faced the change of decade with a battered health, dragging the aftermath of two heart attacks.
After briefly opting for beer, the writer would return to gin with dire consequences, and on December 20, a lethal heart attack would end his life. According to legend, the writer drank gin because his breath smelled much better than with other alcohols.
10. It was the preferred drink during the Dry Law
For the same reason that London became a major illegal producer of gin, the bathtubs in American apartments ended up giving rise to thousands of liters of gin, the most demanded drink at the time (and not just for the good of Fitzgerald).
This gave rise to many of the famous cocktails today, as is the case of the gimlet: due to its bad taste, it was necessary to mix it with other drinks to camouflage it.
What is the gimlet? The favorite cocktail of Philip Marlowe, the famous Raymond Chadler character who was brought to life by Humphrey Bogart in The Eternal Sleep ( The Big Sleep , Howard Hawks, 1946): two thirds of gin and one third of lime juice.
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