To make your summer parties electrifying, we suggest you give or give yourself a set of personalized gin and tonic glasses. If you want to learn how to prepare this aromatic and thirst-quenching cocktail, discover all the bartenders' secrets by reading our blog article. Or take advantage of the promotion that allows you to receive 6 personalized gin and tonic glasses at the special price of € 44.50 instead of € 54.50 and choose one of the graphics we have already prepared for you - all you have to do is choose the one you like best from the menu on the left and put your personalized glasses in the cart.
THE WAY OF THE GIN
A few years are enough and in England it is immediately gin mania, to the point that the abuse of this drink becomes a real social scourge. In the engraving below, dated 1751, the painter William Hogarth stigmatizes the rampant corruption in London's streets due to ... gin. It is no coincidence that the work is entitled "Gin Lane" - the way of gin.
William Hogarth - The Via del Gin, 1751
The gin boom in all English social classes was a consequence of King William II's ban on French brandies, which at the same time liberalized the distillation of spirits at home: in practice, anyone could make gin at home and sell it without having to apply for an authorization.
If gin (or Dutch jenever) was produced with a certain attention to the quality of the ingredients among the wealthier classes, the same cannot be said of the concoctions produced in the most sordid neighborhoods of the capital. Gary Regan writes in Bartender’s Gin Compendium: "Probably the gin drunk in 18th century London was similar to jenever. Most of it was probably terrible, people distilled in their own homes." So terrible that it was poisonous, as many used sulfuric acid, turpentine and lime oil instead of the prized juniper.
In addition to the lethal effects, the consumption of "do-it-yourself" gin turned into a problem of public order among the less well-off classes, acting as a detonator for the already existing social tensions. If in the middle of the century the "Gin act" imposed by law the closure of small gin shops, it was only in 1830 that, with the invention of the Coffey (a distillation column with perforated plates), the production method and quality of gin changed radically and the "London Dry" became the distillate that we still appreciate today.