Gin Tasting, The Foundling Museum

Learn while you drink at The Foundling Museum with a Gin Tasting event

Professor Steven Parissien, director of Compton Verney (country mansion house turned museum and gallery) in Warwickshire, will lead a gin tasting session at The Foundling Museum near Russell Square. 

Along with six taster shots for each guest, Professor Parissien will explore the murky origins of the spirit, which is usually accredited to Dutch physician Franciscus Sylvius in the mid 17th century but may well have been in existence as early as the thirteenth century. 

Parissien will focus on the ‘gin graze’ in England during the mid-eighteenth century: used initially to treat medical problems, such as gallstones and gout, gin’s popularity soared after the Government not only permitted unlicensed gin production but also imposed heavy duty on imported spirits. Consequently, around eight thousand gin shops were established in London alone! Due to the low price on the spirit, gin became popular amongst the poorer members of society and so was blamed for many social problems; this is reflected in the phrase ‘mother’s ruin’, a common British name for gin that’s still in use today.