6 SURPRISING GIN FACTS

You may be an eager gin drinker, but these interesting gin facts might well change everything you thought you knew about gin.

1. 1.    The juniper berry is not a berry at all. It is actually a female seed cone, a highly evolved pinecone with fleshy and merged scales that give it the appearance of a berry.
2. 2.    During the plague years, doctors wore masks filled with juniper berries as they thought the plague was spread by bad odours.
3. 3.    London Dry Gin doesn’t need to be made in London – instead it is a broad style guideline rather than a legal indicator
4. 4.    Sloe Gin is made with the handpicked berries off the Blackthorne tree. You need to freeze the berries in order to break their thick skins before adding to the gin. Sloe gin is to Britain as limoncello is to Italy
5. 5.    Ian Fleming, the author of the James Bond Books. Is credited with inventing the Vesper Martini.
6. 6.    To be called Gin it must legally have a “predominant juniper flavour”. There are no specifications or limits as to how many other botanicals may be used, or the quantity of juniper berries that can to be added during the distilling process.