Most commercial gins owe their aromas and flavours to an assortment of botanicals, their proportions carefully calculated by a skilful head distiller: herbs, spices, roots, fruits, and the like, with juniper berries being the one botanical required by law. They are the seasoning for what would otherwise be a bland dish of neutral grain spirit produced by continuous column distillation.
The development of the column still was pioneered in the United Kingdom two centuries ago by Robert Stein and Aeneas Coffey. It enabled more efficient and economical manufacture of spirits and pushed traditional batch distillation in pot stills to the wayside. Column stills also caused a categorical shift between gin and its predecessor from Belgium and the Netherlands, genever. One became the modern juniper-led drink adored the world over; the other is now a niche spirit, still honouring its malty roots from many centuries ago. The big difference between contemporary gin and genever is the
