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How Gin Became the Meth of 18th Century England
- bontaq 11y agoThis article didn't really say anything interesting. Is there a better article or even book about the gin craze and its effects? Is this just clickbait spam?
- acheron 11y agoGin: A Global History covers it some, though that's not the main topic of the book. http://www.amazon.com/Gin-Global-History-Reaktion-Edible/dp/1861899246 http://www.amazon.com/Gin-Global-History-Reaktion-Edible/dp/...
- chiph 11y agoNo mention of how British colonials were drinking it to cover up the awful taste of quinine, taken to combat malaria.
- throwaway049 11y agoThat just sounds like an excuse to drink gin. Disclosure: I like the taste of Indian tonic water
- noir_lord 11y agoIndian tonic water (modern stuff) has vastly lower levels of quinine than what you would take back then.
- sharksandwich 11y agoYour genes actually play a large role in how you perceive the taste of quinine http://www.monell.org/news/news_releases/quinine http://www.monell.org/news/news_releases/quinine
- look_lookatme 11y agoThere's a Surprisingly Awesome episode about Broccoli and part of it is about genetic taste preferences and some people taste quinine in it. Very interesting episode: https://gimletmedia.com/episode/6-broccoli/ https://gimletmedia.com/episode/6-broccoli/
- sdk77 11y agoActually, after first getting to really know gin at 37, I did some research and found this great article: http://www.historic-uk.com/CultureUK/Mothers-Ruin/ http://www.historic-uk.com/CultureUK/Mothers-Ruin/ Introducing me to the works of William Hogarth (see linked article). I was very surprised that it actually was the Dutch that introduced gin in the UK ( https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gin https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gin ). Funny, I like gin more than I like 'our own' 'jenever'. It's a great drink, neat or otherwise. I understand how this could have caused all this mayhem way back.
- mercer 11y agoThanks for the comment! Aside from providing me with a fascinating article, it finally solves my uncertainty about 'jenever' being linked to 'gin'. I've been trying to explain what it was to my expat friends, and gin is something they understand. (still can't get them to enjoy raw herring though, which is traditionally paired with gin, especially when the new catch, Hollandse Nieuwe, is in...)
- gadders 11y agoI'm surprised they discussed gin in 18th Century England without mentioning Hogarth. He drew some great images of the chaos that gin caused: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Beer_Street_and_Gin_Lane https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Beer_Street_and_Gin_Lane