Xoriguer Gin, 70 cl

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Taylor, David Wilson (1975). Minorca. ISBN 0 7153 6787 0 (Great Britain) ISBN 0 8117 1032 7 (United States) First full account of Minorca in English since John Armstrong's memoirs of 1740. Minorca: The White and Blue Island

And if you close your eyes (under the influence of said gin) I’ll swear you can taste the flavour of history. The original recipe looked at the gin made in the Netherlands to develop what will become the gin of Mahon. We only use one botanical, juniper, which is more similar to the Dutch style,” says Camps, quoting recent research that proves how trade with the Dutch had a significant impact on the development of Mahon’s gin style. Menorca started producing gin while under British occupation, which began in 1708. The island’s strategic position made it a valuable possession and the British took control of it amidst the War of the Spanish Succession between the kingdoms of Castille and Aragon, which had previously held it. British soldiers and sailors demanded gin when assigned to the island, and Menorcans took them up on the job. After a brief French occupation, the British crown handed the island over to Spain, leaving behind a newfound love for gin among the locals. The two official languages are Catalan and Spanish. [17] Natives to the island speak the variety of Catalan called Menorquí, and Spanish as well; many residents originating from the mainland are monolingual in Spanish. The language of education and of government is Catalan, with Spanish taught alongside it. In the Mahón market, as well as the stalls selling a huge variety of scaled and shelled edible delights, part of it has been has been transformed into a series of small eateries selling tapas and speciality beers. The atmosphere is vibrant and a little hectic,a fabulous place to rub shoulders with the locals and get a real feel for island life.In Menorca during the months of July and August, every weekend marks a different town festival, and consumption of Xoriguer increases exponentially. “Ninety percent of sales occur between April and October,” says Camps. Throughout the night without fail, everyone is drinking one specific drink: pomada. Pomada (meaning “ointment” in Catalan, the language of the island), consists of 1/3 parts Gin Xoriguer and 2/3 parts lemonade, says Joan Barber, a bartender in the Menorcan town of Alaior. The gin, Barber tells us, “should always be Xoriguer, although there can be variations in the lemonade. The original recipe uses lemon-flavored soft drinks but some people like natural lemonade with a bit of mint.” A very popular variation is snow cone pomada. It’s a refreshing drink that helps cool the hot nights of the summer town festivals. “Some towns even have their own variation of pomada,” says Barber. One of them is pallofa, gin with sparkling water and lemon zest. And the bravest drink of all is ginet, a cup of gin on its own. This section needs additional citations for verification. Please help improve this article by adding citations to reliable sourcesin this section. Unsourced material may be challenged and removed. ( November 2017) ( Learn how and when to remove this template message) Bradbury, Scott, ed. trans. (1996). Severus of Minorca: Letter on the Conversion of the Jews (Oxford Early Christian Texts). Oxford University Press. p.154. ISBN 978-0-19-826764-5. {{ cite book}}: CS1 maint: multiple names: authors list ( link) The Catalan spoken in Menorca is a variety known as Menorquí. Between Menorquí and standard Catalan, as with most Balearic dialects, the most distinctive difference is the word used for the article "the", where Menorquí uses "es" for masculine and "sa" for feminine. Menorquí thus shares the source of its article with many Sardinian varieties (masc. sing. su, fem sing. sa), rather than the standard Catalan "el" and "la", similar to other Romance languages (e.g. Spanish el, la, Italian il, la), corresponding to a form which was historically used along the Costa Brava of Catalonia, from where it is supposed that the islands were repopulated after being conquered from the Moors. Xoriguer takes its name from a windmill built in 1784 (you can still see the picture on the label.) Senor Miguel Pons Justo started the brand in the 1900s, naming it after the mill that used to grind wheat for his family. Why Gin is Important in Menorca

The major towns are Port Mahon and Ciutadella de Menorca. The island is administratively divided into eight municipalities (from west to east): The island had a Jewish population. [4] The Letter on the Conversion of the Jews by a fifth-century bishop named Severus tells of the forced conversion of the island's 540 Jewish men and women in AD 418. [5] Several Jews, including Theodore, a rich representative Jew who stood high in the estimation of his coreligionists and of Christians alike, underwent baptism. The act of conversion brought about, within a previously peaceful coexisting community, the expulsion of the ruling Jewish elite into the bleak hinterlands, the burning of synagogues, and the gradual reinstatement of certain Jewish families after the forced acceptance of Christianity, allowing the survival of those Jewish families who had not already perished. [4] Many Jews secretly retained their Jewish faith while outwardly professing Christian beliefs. Some of these Jews form part of the Xueta community. Wine production has been known on the island since ancient times, but it went into a heavy decline over the last century. Now, several new, small wineries have started up, producing wines locally. [20] While the British certainly had an influence on the growth of the local spirits industry, Menorca developed its own unique gin style, whose artisanal production method has for some decades been protected by a dedicated geographical indication (GI), Gin de Mahon. The Gin de Mahon rangeFrom 1815 until the mid-century, the U.S. Navy developed its Mediterranean headquarters at Port Mahon, [9] leaving behind the English Cemetery, Menorca, which was restored by the Spanish government in 2008 and is maintained in the 21st century. The resulting spirit is a clear, fragrant, well-defined gin that manages to capture the real essence of its sole botanical, with aromas that range from juniper itself to green wood, herbs and zesty citrus, a broad, fresh finish, and a peppery aftertaste. Sifting juniper berries Article 4, Statute of Autonomy of the Balearic Islands, 2007: "The Catalan language, typical of the Balearic Islands, will have official consideration, together with Spanish." This section needs additional citations for verification. Please help improve this article by adding citations to reliable sourcesin this section. Unsourced material may be challenged and removed. ( January 2017) ( Learn how and when to remove this template message) The areas and populations of the municipalities (according to the Instituto Nacional de Estadística, Spain) are:

The method involves a one-stage distillation undertaken in the distillery’s 250-year-old, 700-litre alembic, heated solely by wood from Menorca’s forests. In the past, gin was also rested in wooden barrels before bottling, yet today it’s bottled immediately after distillation.Xoriguer gin uses a grape based spirit infused with juniper berries and a secret, aromatic blend of herbs and “floral botanicals.” People have been making cheese in Menorca for thousands of years. By far the most famous is the cow’s milk cheese of Mahón. Sold at various ages it gets darker, saltier and harder as it matures. The distinctive taste is in part due to the salty sea breezes that blow on to the meadows where the cows graze. The young cheese is mild and creamy while the older cheese is hard, with a robust salty flavour. As with the rest of the Balearic Islands, Menorca was not occupied by the French during the Peninsular War, as it was successfully protected by the Royal Navy, this time allied to Spain. a b Elukin, Jonathan M. Living Together, Living Apart: Rethinking Jewish-Christian Relations in the Middle Ages. Vol. Jews, Christians, and Muslims from the ancient to the modern world. Princeton, N.J.: Princeton University Press, 2007.

Trager, James (1995). The Food Chronology. New York: Henry Hold and Company. p. 163. ISBN 9780805033892. Burns, Robert I., (1990) "Muslims in the Thirteenth Century Realms of Aragon: Interaction and Reaction", p.67, In: Powell, J.M. (ed.) Muslims under Latin Rule, 1100–1300, p.57–102, Princeton University Press. ISBN 0-691-05586-6.A Catalan-Aragonese invasion, led by Alfonso III (also known as Count of Barcelona Alfons II), came on 17 January 1287; its anniversary is now celebrated as Menorca's national day. Once the island was captured, most of its Muslim inhabitants were enslaved and sold in the slave markets of Eivissa, Valencia and Barcelona, while others became Christians. [7] During the Spanish Civil War, Menorca stayed loyal to the Republican Spanish Government, while the rest of the Balearic Islands supported the Spanish Nationalists. The island did not see ground combat, but it was a target of aerial bombing by the pro-Nationalist Italians of the Corpo Truppe Volontarie Air Force. Many Menorcans were also killed when taking part in a failed invasion of Mallorca. During the Pedro Marqués Barber era (July–December 1936) some Mallorcans and a priest were executed on the island. After the Nationalist victory in the Battle of Minorca in February 1939, the British Navy assisted in a peaceful transfer of power in Menorca and the evacuation of some political refugees aboard HMS Devonshire. Minorca is especially well known for its traditional summer "festes", which intrigue many visitors. The Saint John's Feast is held annually in Ciutadella de Menorca, during 23–25 June. The festes last for three days. On the first day, a man bears a well-groomed sheep upon his shoulders and parades around the local streets. In the late evening, main streets are closed, and bonfires held upon them. Top Tip: Only buy Mahón cheese that has the creases left by the cloth that it is wrapped in before ageing. If it doesn’t have these creases it will be industrially produced cheese rather than the high-quality artisan cheese representing authentic Menorcan cuisine. Whereas mixing gin with lemon juice is hardly novel, pomada stands aside for its inherently sharable nature. It’s, in the beginning, a celebration drink. Whereas pomada may be made as a person serving—some bars merely pour gin and lemon soda over ice and garnish with a lemon slice—few individuals achieve this. As an alternative, it’s ready as a batch to be shared with others. However solely in summer time. As soon as mid-September hits, pomada merely disappears. But for these three or 4 sunny months, the drink reigns supreme.