The gin and tonic ingredients are well documented. Firstly, because both the gin tonic both were invented by doctors usually keep records complete enough.

Gin, or more precisely "jenever" (meaning Juniper in Dutch) was developed at the University of Leiden in Holland in 1650 by the physician Franciscus de la Boe (Dr. Sylvius). He was a pioneer of Medicine of that time and was looking for a way to assimilate to his patients all the supposed benefits that juniper berries should have to the bloodstream.

After trying various concoctions, joined Juniper with several other herbs, suspended in a clear distilled and presented to the world this distillate. Soon his medicinal benefits were overlooked in favor of its deleterious effects. At that point, in the 17th century, the Protestant Dutch Republic (composed of Netherlands, Belgium and Luxembourg) had managed to divide the Catholic Spanish Empire. England had become legally Protestant in the previous century and during the complicated struggle between Catholics and Protestants the Dutch and the English became allies. And, as sometimes they make allies, soon shared their food, one of which was the jenever.

The British called the distillate fortifying "Dutch courage" and began producing their own version, calling it first with the Flemish word "genever", shortening it then with the word "gen" that finally became "gin".

England and Scotland were merged into Britain and these new "British" created three different styles of gin. A toned-down version called Old Tom, and two dry, dry style, London Dry and Plymouth. In the same years in which de la Boe was working in Holland, Spanish colonists in the new world, they discovered that the natives used Cinchona tree bark to treat fevers. The Jesuits took her to Europe to treat those suffering from plague.  In 1736 the British discovered the chinchona bark real property.

When Dr. George Cleghorn, surgeon at 22° Regiment of the Royal Army, arrived on the island of Menorca for doing research on diseases of the Mediterranean, he realized that it was very effective for the treatment ...

RIVO Gin

The mountains, the wind, the water – We distilled the essence of Lake Como to create a gin worthy of this very special place. RIVO Gin is our attempt to bottle its magic and bring it to you.

RIVO Gin: Lake Como’s magic in a bottle

It was an early spring day and we were once again looking at our lake – Lago di Como, that is. As it so often does, the lake was showing off its complete splendor: Imposing peaks surrounding deep blue waters and small waves glistening in the mellow light of the sun. The breeze tousled our hair as it carried the fresh scent of nature in full bloom. Taking it all in, we thought: There has to be a way to distill this beauty and bottle it forever! So that's what we did. We decided right there to create RIVO Gin.

The ingredients: Foraged by hand

RIVO Gin is made by distilling 12 select botanicals, including rare ingredients handpicked in the meadows surrounding Lake Como. Three times a year, expert botanists walk miles
along the lake’s mountainous slopes to harvest them. Once they’ve found the right spots, they pick only the best botanicals by hand. It takes lots of time and skill, but is also a deeply satisfying labor of love. Foraging is the art of searching for botanicals in the wild. It reconnects you with nature and the places where our ingredients are taken. Most excitingly, the combination of these special botanicals have never before been distilled into a gin. Thyme, lemon balm, summer savory and anise are among the local herbs we forage and combine with juniper, coriander, cardamom and angelica to create RIVO Gin’s unique flavor bouquet.

Buy Rivo Gin HERE