Gin is a flavored white spirit.
All gin is flavored with juniper berries, and usually other botanicals, like lemon, coriander, angelica, licorice roots, bitter almonds, and orange peel. Each distiller guards the secret of his own botanicals, since they provide the only characteristic distinguishing one brand from another. Gin originated in Holland in the late 17th century and was brought to England by the returning soldiers around the turn of that century. It had been created as a medicine by a Dutch chemist, who had distilled from grain a spirit that he flavored with juniper berries. It was thought to have real medicinal properties, so it was sold only in druggist shops.