At once sophisticated and standard-issue, gin has underscored the drinking culture of Western Europe since the alchemists of the Benelux mixed juniper berries with malt spirit to make the medieval martini. London then picked up the ball and ran with it, creating Hogarthian havoc on the streets in the 1700s and gorgeous gin palaces, now revered ornate pubs, a century later.
The G&T, concocted to ward off malaria in the tropical swathes of the British Empire, is as universal an acronym as “OK.” The booze barrios of Spain’s twin metropoles are dotted with Gin-Tonic bars, pronounced with an initial ‘dj’ in the English way, but devised with Iberian panache. Even Oslo is getting in on the act, its gin-focused Chair Bar offering an exotic alternative to the ubiquitous akvavit.
For real McCoy, though, return to the source: Flanders. There, traditional genever bars, forerunners of London’s gin pubs, never seem to age.
Antwerp
Home of genever, jenever to local Flemings, Flanders created “Dutch courage” when drinking water was a risky proposition in Plague-ravaged Europe. After invading German troops confiscated the copper stills in 1914, laws remained in force after 1918 banning the profitable distribution of the juniper-enhanced spirit. Prohibition wasn’t repealed until 1984, when bars across the Dutch-speaking half of Belgium revived a long-lost Flemish tradition.
A year later, De Vagant opened near the Rubens statue in Antwerp, gradually expanding its drinks menu to include 200 types of formerly forbidden genever and filling its interior with old flagons and pre-prohibition posters. This now constitutes a collection of sorts—although there is also a National Jenevermuseum in nearby Hasselt.
Nobody leaves Antwerp without a visit to Den Engel, the landmark bar created 500 years ago in the main square and serving quality genever since—1914-1984 excepted, of course.
Plymouth
Road signs outside English towns say: “Twinned with …” before listing random destinations, generally European, of goodwill partnership. “Torquay, twinned with Hellevoetsluis,” that kind of thing. Across Devon, a town sign reads, “Plymouth—twinned with tonic.” This historic port, actually twinned with its American namesake of 1620 fame, of course, is synonymous with gin. Near the departure point of The Mayflower, the Plymouth Gin Distillery is where the Pilgrim Fathers spent the night before embarkation. Then a monastery, it has produced brand-specific Plymouth Gin since 1793. Distillery tours take in the Refectory Bar, wares sampled in expertly mixed cocktail form. Plymouth Gin is stronger and earthier than its London counterpart, its reputation just as illustrious. Plymouth Gin was naval issue around the British Empire. The seminal cocktail recipe book at London’s Savoy Hotel specified the Plymouth variety for its gin-based mixed drinks.
Traditional bars around Plymouth’s seafront Barbican – the Queen’s Arms, say, or Maritime Inn, also stock the town’s signature drink, recently remarketed with The Mayflower on the label.
Barcelona