Gin The National Jenever Museums are located in Hasselt, Belgium, and Schiedam, the Netherlands. The name "gin" is a shortened form of the older English word "genever", related to the French word "genièvre" and the Dutch word "jenever". All ultimately derive from "juniperus", the Latin for juniper. Although several different styles of gin have evolved, it is legally differentiated into four categories in the European Union, which are described as follows. In the EU, the minimum bottled alcoholic strength for gin, distilled gin, and London gin is 37.5 per cent ABV. In the United States, gin is defined as an alcoholic
Gin in popularity by the early 20th century. The invention and development of the column still (1826 and 1831) made the distillation of neutral spirits practical, thus enabling the creation of the "London dry" style that evolved later in the 19th century. In tropical British colonies gin was used to mask the bitter flavour of quinine, which was the only effective anti-malarial compound. Quinine was dissolved in carbonated water to form tonic water; the resulting cocktail is gin and tonic, although modern tonic water contains only a trace of quinine as a flavouring. Gin is a common base spirit for many