juniper is a small, bushy, coniferous shrub with short, prickly needles. Although there are a number of different species of Juniperus, it is Juniperus communis that is most important to the beverage industry, as its fruit is required in the production of gin. Juniper berries are frequently used in northern Europe and Scandinavia to flavor meats, especially game, and are best utilized when fresh.
Juniper berries in fact are not berries at all but instead soft cones (similar to a pine cone) of the juniper plant. Yet instead of these cones having a tough and woody exterior, they remain slightly moist and fleshy. The essential oils of juniper berries are rich in the monoterpene compounds pinene, germacrene, and myrcene, which provide fresh, sweet, light yet warm, piney-camphorous notes. See essential oils.
While juniper grows in most regions of the northern hemisphere, the best juniper berries for gin production come from the hot, Mediterranean regions in and around Italy. A juniper berry can take from one to three years to mature, eventually reaching a rich bluish black. Both green and the riper bluish berries can both be found on the same plant and are harvested traditionally by whacking the branches of the shrub with a stick.
Historically, juniper was employed commonly as a medicinal herb. The earliest recorded use of juniper was from an Egyptian papyrus from 1500 bce, which listed it in a recipe to cure tapeworm infestation. Later, juniper would be utilized by the Romans for various stomach ailments. See health and spirits.
It was because of the myriad health-related benefits that juniper offered that the Dutch first created jenever (genever) in the 1500s. Some of the great benefits of juniper are its antiseptic and diuretic properties, which help aid in the removal of waste and acidic toxins from the body. Juniper also helps to increase the flow of digestive fluids, improving digestion and eliminating gas and stomach cramping. It was also employed to treat gout; various infections within the bladder, kidneys, urinary tract, and prostrate; and during times of war to help protect wounds from becoming septic.
Although it is now severely threatened there, juniper used to grow prolifically in the Scottish Highlands, and during the nineteenth century its berries were collected by local farmers and delivered to the markets in Inverness and Aberdeen for exportation to the Dutch genever distillers. Also during this time Scottish juniper berries were sometimes redistilled with local whiskies to make gin. See whisky, scotch. With the modern return to small-scale distilling, such local sources of juniper are once again being exploited to make gin, both in Europe and in the Americas.
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Gin Foundry. “Juniper Defines Gin.” Gin Foundry, March 12, 2014. http://www.ginfoundry.com/botanicals/juniper/ (accessed February 17, 2021).
McGee, Harold. On Food and Cooking: The Science and Lore of the Kitchen. New York: Scribner, 2004.
Taylor, Alfred Swaine. A Manual of Medical Jurisprudence. Philadelphia: Henry C. Lea’s Son. 1880.
By: Audrey Saunders