THE person I blame is Sylvius of Leyden. There he was, fiddling with his botanicals, when he accidentally dropped a juniper berry into his glass of spirits. Sylvius was soon the merriest apothecary in the Netherlands and 300 years on - with many mothers ruined en route - gin is still one of summer's most popular drinks.
Made from a distillation of anything from potatoes to barley, and flavoured with the addition of a variety of aromatic herbs, aka botanicals, gin came to prominence way back in the 17th century when William of Orange banned the importation of French brandy and promoted gin instead, distilled from patriotic English grain. By 1736, however, the London populace was consuming so much of it that it was banned. Hogarth's famous Gin Lane picture shows a sign which reads: "Drunk: 1d. Dead drunk: 2d. Clean straw for nothing."
There were also economic reasons for the ban the development of the sugar industry in the Caribbean had resulted in an interesting side-product which needed to be given preferential treatment: rum.
Such was the uproar, however, over the sidelining of gin, plus the fact that illicit gin was worse than the legal stuff, that the Act which banned it was repealed in 1742.
The popularity of gin began to cross the social divide, however, when, in the outposts of the British Empire, it was discovered that the addition of a drop of gin to the quinine water - necessary to reduce the malaria fever - went down a treat. In South America, they took it with hitters from Angostura which, as my wide-ranging research reveals, is a town in Venezuela now known as Ciudad Bolivar.
It was only when the old colonials returned home with their gout and their "G and Ts" that the tone of the drink was finally lifted from the uproar of the gin palace to the chintz gentility of the drawing room.
In the old days, gin went under a variety of names including My Lady's Eye Water, Royal Poverty and Cuckold's Comfort. More familiar to us now are the old faithfuls which have never lost ground, such as Cork Dry Gin, Beefeaters and Gilbey's. A few lesser-known names, however, have been enjoying a renewal of interest, among them Tanqueray and Bombay Sapphire.
Tanqueray is greatly favoured by discerning Americans, while Bombay Sapphire, relaunched two years ago, is blue as long as it stays in the bottle. Let it out and it becomes colourless. Bombay has the highest number of botanicals of any gin I know: 10 in all, including coriander from Morocco, liquorice from China and "grains of paradise" - whatever they are - from West Africa. Of course, after a few glasses, you're not going to query where your grains of paradise are coming from - as long as they keep coming.
In Carvill's, Dublin's literary off-licence (mentioned in Ulysses as Delahunt's), Nigel Carvill sells a lot of every sort of gin and it was there that I did some of my research, delving into the family bible also known as Lichine's Encyclopaedia of wines and Spirits. In it, I learned the origin of the word: gin from the Dutch jenever, meaning juniper, the most favoured botanical. (You can, of course, have a go at making your own gin using sloes - the fruit of the black thorn.)
Sean Boyd, head barman at Dublin's Shelbourne Hotel, is, as you might expect, an authority on gin matters: "Gin and It used to be very popular, but tastes are changing. I remember, in Belfast, the place in the Cornmarket there, where Rosses mineral water was made - to go with the gin. It's gone now, of course." His special trick is a Pink Gin. Here's how you make it:
Pour some Angostura bitters into a glass and swirl it round the glass, then empty out. Light a cigar and swirl the smoke round the inside of the glass. Add gin and drink.
There are two things not widely known about gin. One is that - unlike the rest of us - it does not improve with age, therefore the sooner you drink it the better. Though not so fast that there's none left for anyone else.
At a recent family get-together in Kerry, a bottle of inexpensive gin was bought in the mistaken belief that this would be cheaper than going to the pub. All that happened, of course, was that - yes, you've guessed - everyone went to the pub as well as drinking the gin. What was puzzling, though, was the high evaporation level considering so few in the party admitted to liking it.
The other thing is that, even if you're not a gin-drinker it still has its uses: you can clean your contact lenses by soaking them in the stuff. But don't, as a friend of mine did, inadvertently drink the contents of the glass, otherwise you could end up with eyes at the back of your ...
Serving hints l. The perfect dry Martini is made with four parts gin to one part dry vermouth.
2. Always serve your iced gin with slices of lime, never lemon.
3. Dutch gin tends towards sweetness, London gin is always dry and Tanqueray, like Shanghai Lil, is known for its silky body.
4. Sean Boyd's favourite, taken from his much-used copy of the UK Bartenders' Guild book on mixing drinks, is Singapore Gin Sling, as served at Raffles:
1/4 lemon juice, 1/2 gin, 1/4 cherry brandy lump of ice
Shake, drink - and remember which glass you left your contact lenses in.