Jenever seems to have made a comeback, especially among young audiences. A pub crawl past ten ‘real’ Amsterdam cafés shows that all ten have recently sold a lot more gin. “After four hours, a hundred glasses go through.”
“The idea is often: old people at a bar staring into space with a gin,” says owner Paul Verbunt of Café Slijterij Oosterling in Utrechtsestraat. “But that’s not the case anymore.” According to him, it is now mainly young people who order it. They see the same thing at Café Hesp on Weesperzijde. “Young people are going back to the way things used to be,” says bartender Karla Blom.
Jenever is back on the menu among young people – NH News
That’s right, say several young people themselves. “My friends play charades and they always have to have a gin with it,” says one. Someone else doesn’t know what a pikketanussie is, but a gin? “Yes, I know that. I drink that with ice tea, because then it’s like lemonade.” Yet another thinks that the popularity of gin goes hand in hand with the return of the brown café. “Delicious, with an egg and a cup of tea at the bar.”
“My friends are playing and they always need a gin”
Verbunt also sees this broader trend. “Young people want to take the time for something again, enjoy a gin with a newspaper or a good conversation.” When asked whether the popularity could have something to do with the price of gin, he answers: “If you are talking about gin being cheap, then you are mistaken. A good gin is not much cheaper than a whisky. Young people just go for a good and beautiful product.”
Blom has been working at Hesp for more than twenty years, where gin was still distilled until 1990. She sees that people are asking for gin more and more often. That is why she comes up with the idea of re-distilling an old ‘old gin’. “That’s nostalgic and I like that,” says Blom. And so she contacted retired gin distiller at Hesp, Jan Jedema, who turned out to still have an old recipe. Now they sit together proudly next to their new, old gin. Blom: “I hope that more cafes where distillation used to be made will bring out their old recipes again. It’s part of Amsterdam.”
Too many to choose from
Will gin ever be as popular again as it was in the 60s and 70s? No, Verbunt, Blom and Jedema don’t think that. According to the owner of café Oosterling, this is due to the mentality of young people. “It used to be drunk because it was cheap. Not anymore.” According to former gin distiller Jedema, it is also due to the great competition. “There is too much to choose from. Gin will remain a small part of everything. But it will remain permanent.”
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