History Of Gin Difford S Guide

Leo Migdal

-Dec 3, 2025, 8:49 AM

Rent and save from the world's largest eBookstore. Read, highlight, and take notes, across web, tablet, and phone. Gin now has its own geek's bible, a heady cocktail of information, enthusiasm and authority. -- Observer Food Monthly All alcohols have a social history and this book tells the story of gin. The spirit has a long and lively history and its popularity has waxed and waned over the centuries.

But it is in demand again -- and rising -- and many would say that only now is it getting the recognition it truly deserves. At the same time, new makers populate the scene, many of them small, craft distilleries. The great G&T (gin and tonic) has earned new respect and is more fashionable now than when it was created by the English during Queen Victoria's reign. From Glenfiddich Food & Drink Award-winning writer Simon Difford comes this beautiful guide to the 'juniper jewel.' Gin brings comprehensive coverage of the white spirit. It provides a detailed history of the rollercoaster ride gin has taken over the centuries, a full explanation of gin styles and production methods, in-depth reports on 16 distilleries, and production and tasting notes... It is a true celebration of arguably the world's most dynamic and fashionable spirit.

For the great many aficionados of gin, new and veteran, Gin is a lively, informative and affectionate history of the heart and soul of the G&T. The beginning of the 19th century saw attempts to develop a still to speed and improve the distilling process and 1826 Robert Stein invented a still consisting of two columns. An Irishman and patent office cleric, Aeneas Coffey considerably improved the design and patented his 'Coffey' still in 1831. Column stills are also known as 'continuous stills' because, as its name suggests, they can be run continuously without the need to stop and start between batches as in pot stills (aka: alembic stills). This coupled with the higher concentration of alcohol in the final distillate makes column stills much more economical to operate than pot stills. The Coffey still enabled distillers to produce a much purer spirit, and on a larger scale than was previously possible and by the middle of the 19th century the quality of gin produced using...

This new style of gin eventually became known as dry gin, then London Dry Gin. The first London dry gins were more aromatic than is typical of today's style. During the 19th century Sir Felix Booth set up another distillery at Brentford and grew Booth's Distillers into the largest distilling company in England. In 1829-33 he financed John Ross's expedition to chart the North West Passage: Ross failed to do this but did succeed in locating the true position of the magnetic North, and named some newly... Sold Out Quantity: #quantity { padding:5px; width:35px; border: 1px solid #555; } This book is everything it says on the cover; an encyclopaedic compendium that contains all you need to know about Gin.

With a more generalised overview on the category, there is no other book to date that has provided such an overview on cocktails, the history of gin and an in-depth look into a range... The result is a very precise and informative hardback, detailed but never dull. It’s a must-read for people who are interested in Gin. Each chapter is broken-up with double page-spreads of enlarged quotes from well-respected names within the industry. The book ends with a catalogue of over 175 gin brands that includes essential information, detailed reviews and tasting notes by Simon Difford himself. Gin has endured a roller coaster ride since its inception.

From fashionable 12th century after-dinner tummy trouble reliever, to the scourge of London during a gin craze of the 18th. In the 19th century the spirit formed the backbone of some of the most enduring and classic cocktails of our time, but by the 20th it was the go-to giggle juice for grandmas with... This is in spite of gin in the 18th century tasting, well to be perfectly blunt, like piss. We can say this with some authority too, with accounts of the awful ingredients used to bulk it out. One being piss. Drinkers called it “piss-quick”.

Other customers complained of acid stomach for the first time, possibly because it was occasionally bulked up with sulphuric acid. As you will see, history is packed with classic gins and equally classic gin cocktails. The earliest gin creations invariably offer interesting tales to tell at the bar. Take the Gimlet. In 1747, surgeon James Lind’s discovered that citrus combatted scurvy – which encouraged the navy to make lime juice standard issue by the 19th century. GIN’S PAST IS ONE OF UPS AND DOWNS, BUT ITS STRATOSPHERIC RISE IN THE PRESENT HAS SECURED ITS FUTURE.

GIN IS IN. Greek Physician Galen claims juniper can cleanse the liver and kidneys but is mixing it with alcohol, which somewhat undermines his theory. This book is everything it says on the cover; an encyclopaedic compendium that contains all you need to know about Gin. With a more generalised overview on the category, there is no other book to date that has provided such an overview on cocktails, the history of gin and an in-depth look into a range... The result is a very precise and informative hardback, detailed but never dull. It’s a must-read for people who are interested in Gin.

Each chapter is broken-up with double page-spreads of enlarged quotes from well-respected names within the industry. The book ends with a catalogue of over 175 gin brands that includes essential information, detailed reviews and tasting notes by Simon Difford himself. Elegantly designed with block colours and a modern typeface, the book is reminiscent of a contemporary magazine inside which has been upgraded to a more permanent keepsake. Genuinely, if there is one book that is a cut above the rest when it comes to an “overall” Gin book – this is it. The impact of gin on London's deprived inner-city population unused to anything stronger than beer has been compared to the effects of crack cocaine on modern day American inner-city ghettos. The period during which gin had its greatest impact in Britain has since become known as the 'Gin Craze'.

Today we use the term 'drug crazed' but back in 18th century London the poor were 'gin crazed'. This period is generally perceived to have been 1720 to 1751 but the truth is that these were the dates between which people publicly expressed their concern over the craze. Daniel Defoe must have regretted his support of the Company of Distillers [see 1726], just two years after writing their pamphlet he publicly blamed gin for most of London's problems. In 1728 he wrote, "in less than an Age, we may expect a fine Spindle-shank'd Generation". London's gin consumption peaked in 1743 and despite the Gin Act of 1751 these high levels lasted until 1757 when a series of crop failures forced distillation of grain to be banned. Gin allowed the 18th century poor to forget the squalor and hardship in which they lived.

It was a powerful drug that was cheaply and easily available. A much quoted gin shop sign from Tobias Smollett's 'History of England' reads, "Drink for a penny, dead drunk for two pence, clean straw for nothing."

History Of Gin Difford S Guide

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