medicine cabinet?...

..well maybe in the 1600s when the Dutch first brewed juniper flavoured alcohol as a medicinal aid and named it 'genever' (from the old French genevre for juniper.)
English soldiers allied to the Dutch in the '30 Years War' took it back to England and it was on for one and all.

'Strong water' ...what a great name!...was the name for London's 7000 shops selling only spirits and Gin was the star.
Cheap, cheerful and named for such 'Cuckhold's Comfort'; 'Ladies Delight' and 'Mother's Ruin' by 1751 the Gin Act licensed retailers in an attempt to to cure the availability that was so cheap that you could be 'drunk for a penny dead drunk for a tuppence'...the 'malaise' where in London alone 20 million! gallons was being distilled and binged by lads and lasses.
The Gin Act finally resulted in better supervision of distillation and by  1800s Gin Palaces were all the go, imposing and glam and apparently the template for the British Posh Pub! battling the beer sellers that were not licensed.

Then Gin was schlepped to the India where it diluted the taste of quinine rich tonic water and the G&T was born.

This three shelf selection,  a mere sample of the shelves of gins is a veritable herbal and spice palate of gins.
There are Dutch and London Gins and more added  botanicals from Australia, Italy and Japan than you could poke a toothpick with an olive, teeny onion or threaded lemon zest at.