Gin is one of Britain’s most iconic spirits, thanks to the infamous 18th-century gin craze and a slew of modern gin parlors and distilleries that attract visitors in major cities from London to Glasgow. Annual sales of this classic British spirit top two billion British pounds.
And yet, despite its continued popularity, the future of the beloved beverage is uncertain. Populations of the common juniper tree—British gin’s defining ingredient—are dwindling across the United Kingdom. It leaves distillers without the tree’s seed cones, which lend the spirit its distinctive pine-like aroma and resinous feel.
“The fact that gin is quintessentially English, if its main ingredient is no longer growing—it could mean a cultural loss,” says Neil Beckett, owner of London-based Kingston Distillers Ltd., producers of Beckett’s Gin.
Getty Images Climate Change, Disease and Other Threats
Common juniper is a conifer native to cool temperate areas of the Northern Hemisphere and one of only three native conifers in Britain. The trees thrived across England and Scotland in the early modern period, with juniper berries collected in the highlands becoming one of Scotland’s leading exports in the 17th century and English juniper fueling the gin craze.
However, juniper populations have declined in size and number over recent decades as the species has failed to regenerate under natural conditions due to changes in habitat and ecosystem. Disease outbreaks have wiped out clusters of trees in northwest England, and rising temperatures due to climate change have exacerbated their decline in southern Britain.
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This Article was originally published on Wine Enthusiast
