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The real story of gin

Gin ranks among the hardest of hard liquors

Around 1650 C.E., Franciscus Sylvius, Professor of Medicine at Leyden, Holland, invented a drink made from unmalted grain and flavoured with juniper berries, as a remedy for kidney disorders. He called it "genever" after the French "genièvre" for juniper. The drink, now known as gin, became popular worldwide after the Dutchman, William of Orange, assumed the English throne in 1689. The heat and malaria of India drove the British Raj officers to gin and tonic, the latter being a carbonated beverage flavoured with a small amount of quinine, lemon and lime. The drink prevented neither malaria nor scurvy, but that didn't hurt its popularity.

Gin is now considered a "refined" drink, but 200 years ago, London was in an uproar over the way gin was ruining the working classes. The Gin Act of 1736 raised prohibitive taxes on the spirit. This led to riots that eventually forced loosening of its provisions. Martini is perhaps the most famous gin-based cocktail. Made from gin and dry vermouth, it was the favourite of Ernest Hemingway, Cary Grant and Winston Churchill. Even James Bond drank gin martinis before he moved on to vodka martinis. Gin may be a "ladies' drink" in some eyes, but it is among the hardest of hard liquors. It contains around 40 to 45 per cent of alcohol, which puts it in the same league as whisky, brandy, rum and vodka.

Women who drink gin thinking it is a "light" spirit are in for a surprise. Because they have half the capacity of men when it comes to metabolising alcohol, they get drunk faster. Drinking more than 90 ml of gin per day by an otherwise healthy man, or drinking half that amount by an otherwise healthy woman, is harmful. If you must drink, do it on a full stomach. Pregnant women should not drink at all.

RAJIV M.

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