Page 46 - Thirst Magazine Issue No. 3 Coffee & Tea

Jabir ibn Hayyan
Geber, Arabian
alchemist /
Credit: Wellcome
Library, London /
Pourtraits et Vies
des Hommes
Illustres

add botanicals to distillates, and describes the a dramatic cold snap in weather conditions
‘Euphoric Benefits’ of drinking them. By 1495 forced the hands of grape distillers to switch
a book from an affluent Dutch family notes to distilling grain with their botanicals.
the recipe for a botanical distillate which During the Eighty Years’ War in Europe
includes Juniper (alongside nutmeg, ginger, between 1568-1648 in which English soldiers
galangal, grains of paradise, cloves, cinnamon, fought alongside the Dutch against the
cardamom, many of Spanish, the English
which we should note noted the effect of
are not native to Europe, drinking this genever on
never mind England!). THE ENGLISH NOTED their Dutch counterparts
This book, intriguingly prior to battle. This
later falls into the hands THE EFFECT OF DRINKING was when the phrase
of a doctor named Sir THIS GENEVER ON THEIR ‘Dutch Courage’ entered
Hans Sloane who later the world for the first
donates it alongside DUTCH COUNTERPARTS time, referencing the
others in his collection to PRIOR TO BATTLE. THIS WAS emboldening impact of
the British people as part alcohol on the human
of the founding collection WHEN THE PHRASE condition!
of the British Library. Following this
However, we still ‘DUTCH conflict, a taste for
don’t see the word ‘Gin’ genever (alongside
appearing anywhere in several thousand Dutch
our tale. Indeed it will soldiers) made its way
be a while more before COURAGE’ to British shores, but it’s
a proto-gin of sorts, ENTERED THE WORLD not until 1688 when a
‘Genever’, enters the monarch called William
drinking lexicon during FOR THE FIRST TIME of Orange takes the
the mid 1500’s, when British throne do we

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