By Richard Barnett

Host： Well， initially， gin was conceived of as more of a medicine than a beverage for pleasure.

Richard： Absolutely. In fact， the whole idea of 1）distilling 2）spirits really comes out of the tradition of， strangely enough， out of the Arabic

3）alchemy. If you went to Baghdad， of all places， in the eighth or ninth centuries， youd have found an absolutely thriving culture of research， people trying to investigate the nature of the universe and study it in different ways. Distillation becomes a really powerful technique for doing that. And a lot of the early alchemists think that when you distill wine or beer or spirits in some kind of way， what you end up with is almost the human life force. You get people calling it 4）aqua vitae， the water of life. And then when this liquor starts to be mixed with 5）juniper berries—juniper has had a very long medicinal history， especially for the problems of childbearing. So you have these very potent medicinal substances coming together in gin. And for a long time， as…as you rightfully say， it was thought of as medicine.

主持人：呃，最初，金酒（又稱“杜松子酒”）更普遍地是被視為一種藥物，而非供消遣的飲品。

理查德：完全正確。事實上，說來也奇怪，蒸餾酒這個概念源于阿拉伯傳統(tǒng)煉金術。在十八或十九世紀的巴格達，幾乎每個地方，你都可以感受到這股正在興起的文化熱潮—— 對研究的狂熱，人們試圖研究宇宙的本質(zhì)，用不同的方式來研習宇宙的奧妙。蒸餾法由此成為了很有力的研究手段。很多早期的煉金術士認為，當你以某種方式蒸餾葡萄酒、啤酒或者是其他酒精，最終你會感受到人類生命的力量。于是，人們稱它為aqua vitae ——生命之水。后來人們開始把杜松子和這種蒸餾得到的酒調(diào)在一起。杜松子作為藥物已經(jīng)具有很長的一段歷史，尤其是用在婦女分娩時。所以，人們將這種強有效的藥材和酒調(diào)在一起。久而久之，正如你所說，它被認為是一種藥物。

Host： How is it that gin， particularly in England of the 1700s， developed such a nasty reputation？

Richard： Well， it all comes down to high politics. In 1689 in this country， we have whats called the Glorious Revolution. The old Catholic King James II is booted out and a Protestant king—6）William of Orange， whos Dutch—is brought in. Now， when William of Orange comes to the throne， he knows that hes dependent upon a whole lot of 7）aristocratic supporters. Now， these people， in turn， are dependent for their income on the massive agricultural estates theyve got. So William knows that if he wants to keep his throne， what he has to do is keep the price of grain nice and high. Now， one of the first ways he tries to do this is to 8）deregulate British distilling. Pretty much anybody can start distilling. It opens up a new market for grain. Gin suddenly becomes incredibly cheap. Anybody can make it， probably anybody can afford it， and this is what starts to push its reputation down.

Host： And this becomes what has been called “The Gin Craze.”

Richard： Absolutely. This is a period between about 1720 and 1750. Theres a huge amount of public disquiet， not only about the low price of gin， but the social effects that this is having. Probably the most famous representation of this is the great English artist William Hogarth produces an 9）engraving called “Gin Lane，” which is a terrible image of the social breakdown thats being caused by gin.

Host： Right. Its an image of people basically falling about—I mean， a woman dropping her baby as she flops backwards， half-naked， obviously drunk.

Richard： Absolutely.

Host： A guy looking like a crack addict， only hes probably a gin addict.

主持人：那這種酒是如何被冠上惡名呢，尤其是在十八世紀的英格蘭？

理查德：嗯，這要歸結(jié)于高層政治。1689年，在英格蘭，我們經(jīng)歷了光榮革命。天主教英王詹姆斯二世被攆下位，信奉新教的荷蘭人奧蘭治親王威廉登上了王位。威廉登上王位后，他深知自己需仰仗于眾多貴族們的擁護。而這些人主要的收入來源于自己經(jīng)營的大規(guī)模農(nóng)業(yè)莊園。所以，威廉知道自己如果想穩(wěn)坐寶座，他必須要保證糧食價格穩(wěn)定且高。那時，他首先做的一件事就是解除英國對酒類釀造的管制。結(jié)果是，幾乎是任何人都可以釀酒。這為糧食打開了新的市場。金酒突然變得異常便宜。任何人都可以釀造金酒，幾乎所有人都買得起，也就是從這時起它的名聲開始衰落。

主持人：后來就演變成了“金酒狂熱”。

理查德：沒錯。這段時期從

1720年持續(xù)到1750年。公眾很不安，不僅是因為金酒低廉的價格，還因為它所造成的社會影響。最著名的代表作大概是英國藝術家威廉·荷加斯創(chuàng)作的一副名叫“金酒小巷”的版畫，描繪的是金酒引起的可怕的社會萎靡情景。

主持人：是的。那幅畫里的人們幾乎都是放縱的、墮落的——在畫里，孩子正從一個半裸女人的懷中跌出，而她自己倒仰坐在地上，明顯是喝醉了。

理查德：沒錯。

主持人：另一個男子看起來就像是癮君子的，很可能就是個金酒成癮者。

Richard： In fact， if you wanted a very good modern 10）parallel for the way that gin was regarded in the 18th century， crack is probably a very， very good one.

Host： What finally brought gin to respectability？

Richard： I think its a number of things. Firstly， we should say its a very important American invention. Possibly one of the great American cultural contributions to the world is the invention of the cocktail. Through the 19th century， first of all， Americans and then Europeans get the habit of drinking spirits mixed up with the whole happy hour of other things： bitters and tonics and all sorts of things. And that helps to make gin more respectable. Its just one more ingredient in the cocktail cabinet.

I think the second thing that helps to make gin more respectable is the growth of the gin and tonic. If you imagine colonists from Europe going out to the tropics in the 19th century， one of the biggest problems they face is 11）malaria—terrible， terrible disease， kills many thousands of Europeans， and of course many hundreds of thousands of Africans in this period. Now， at the time， theres only one effective treatment， and thats a drug which in Britain is called 12）quinine. I think in the U.S. you call it quinine. Its derived from the bark of a tree that grows in South America.

Now， the trouble with quinine is its incredibly bitter. So in the 19th century， lots of companies start producing more 13）palatable ways of taking your daily quinine. This is tonic water. Now， British colonists in the late 19th century discover that tonic water and gin sort of complement one other. Theyve both got this rather sort of refreshing botanical kind of flavour. So， the British start drinking the gin and tonic and making it the distinctive drink of British colonials. And they bring this habit back to Britain in the—I suppose in the 20th century. So those are the two things that start to make gin a much more respectable prospect.

理查德：事實上，如果你想要在現(xiàn)在找一種相當于十八世紀的金酒的東西，那就是可卡因。

主持人：那最終是什么使得金酒重獲人們的尊敬呢？

理查德：我認為是有幾個因素。首先，我們必須提到這是美國十分重要的一項發(fā)明?；蛟S美國對世界最重要的文化貢獻之一就是發(fā)明了雞尾酒。在十九世紀，先是美國人，接著是歐洲人都習慣把酒和其他的東西混著喝：苦啤或者是奎寧水，還有各種其他的調(diào)料。這樣使得金酒開始受到尊重（譯者注：金酒是雞尾酒中常用的基酒之一）。雞尾酒酒柜中又多了一味調(diào)料。

我覺得使金酒受人尊敬的第二個因素，還因為人們更普遍地把金酒和奎寧水調(diào)配在一起。你想象一下，在十九世紀，歐洲殖民者去到熱帶地區(qū)，面臨的最大問題之一就是瘧疾——這種極其可怕的疾病導致成千上萬歐洲人和非洲人喪命。當時唯一有效的治療，就是在英國被稱為奎寧的這種藥物。我想在美國，只是發(fā)音有些不同。這是從南美洲一種樹的樹皮上提取的物質(zhì)。

問題是，奎寧非?？唷Ｋ?，在十九世紀時，許多公司都開始研究各種各樣可以使奎寧更容易入口的方法。于是有了奎寧水。到十九世紀后期，英國殖民者發(fā)現(xiàn)奎寧水和金酒搭配很不錯，混合后是一種清爽的植物芳香的味道。所以，英國人開始把金酒和奎寧水混合著喝，使其成為英國殖民者的特色飲品，并在二十世紀時，將這個習慣帶回英國。這就是使得金酒重新受到人們尊重的兩個因素。