Curious...why do you suddenly feel the need to imbibe gin??
An interesting question. Two reasons actually:
1.) I am teaching a new upper-division/graduate class in Medical Parasitology this semester. Of course, the most important parasitic disease is malaria, and the history of the disease is actually quite interesting. One aspect of this is early herbal/medicinal treatments. The earliest one is artemisinin from the Chinese text
Nei Ching from about 2700 BCE. Artemisinin, also known as wormwood for its supposed anti-worm properties (against nasty parasitic worms--schistosomiasis, dracunculiasis), is a potent antimalarial in areas that that have not evolved immunity. Even today, research on artemisinin continues, and a Nobel Prize in Medicine was awarded in 2015 for this. Artemisinin is famously an ingredient in the liquor known as absinthe. Quinine, from the bark of the Peruvian Cinchona tree is another, much later herbal remedy, first used by the Incas in the 17th century CE. Of course, quinine is a key ingredient in tonic water, so I wanted to try that. Quninine-infused tonic water is bitter, or so I've read, and it is combined with gin to soften it. In any case quinine, to a large extent, was the basis for the British Empire, in its colonization (genocide, slavery, and general fcukery) of India, and much of Africa. Major fortunes were built on quinine, specifically the Burrows/Welcome companies of the U.K. and U.S.
Quinine also sparked interest among the French, due to their colonization of parts of Africa and Asia. French aperitifs such as Lillet, Dubonnet, and the like also are infused with quinine.
2.) My wife and I went to France (Paris, Brittany, etc) on vacation in 2019, and we became very interested in the food and drink. I bought the book
Drinking French by David Lebowitz, and he was talking about all these different types of boooze, including Gin and Tonic. Such a classic cocktail. I thought I would try it.
It has always seemed to be drunk before dinner--I would prefer mine to be on the dry side!
Anyway, thanks for all the interesting replies!