{"id":801,"date":"2019-06-08T16:49:44","date_gmt":"2019-06-08T15:49:44","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/research.reading.ac.uk\/herbarium\/?p=801"},"modified":"2019-06-10T14:48:18","modified_gmt":"2019-06-10T13:48:18","slug":"world-gin-day-2019","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/research.reading.ac.uk\/herbarium\/2019\/06\/08\/world-gin-day-2019\/","title":{"rendered":"World Gin Day 2019"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

By Claire Smith<\/a> and Alastair Culham<\/a><\/h1>\n

Some years ago Reading University helped supply some plants to the stunning display glasshouses at the Bombay Sapphire Gin distillery about 40 minutes drive west of us.\u00a0 That has led us to a deep and long standing interest in the botanical components of perhaps the most botanically oriented of all alcoholic drinks: Gin.\u00a0 Here we work through the major botanicals of Bombay Sapphire.\u00a0 If you have a favourite gin then we’d like to hear from you and we’ll look in to the botanicals in that.<\/p>\n

Bombay Sapphire<\/a><\/b><\/h2>\n

Bombay Sapphire gin is made using ten botanicals – seven of which we introduce here based on specimens in Reading University Herbarium.<\/p>\n

Juniper berries – <\/b>Juniperus communis<\/i><\/b><\/h3>\n

Juniper forms the base of gin and is one of the key ingredients in all typical gins.<\/p>\n

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Juniperus communis<\/i> – common juniper<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

This specimen is from Sicily, and was collected in 1983. You can clearly see the berries – which are not true berries, but in fact small cones with unusually fleshy scales. The cones are most commonly used when they\u2019re mature, but still green.<\/p>\n

Meg Cathcart-James<\/a> has written an Advent Botany blog post<\/a> all about the delights of Juniper, and its festive and culinary uses – including gin, of course!<\/p>\n

Lemon peel – <\/b>Citrus limon<\/i><\/b><\/h3>\n

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Hailing all the way from Saudi Arabia, this lovely lemon shows a slice through the fruit. It was collected for Umm Al-Qura University in 2016, and is a voucher specimen for a University of Reading MSc about medicinal plant use among women in Mecca.<\/p>\n

\u00a0<\/p>\n

Coriander – <\/b>Coriandrum sativum <\/i><\/b><\/h3>\n