On a sunny summer's day, a glass of gin with ice and a slice makes for the ideal tipple. And if you want to find out more about how it's actually made, Kent's distilleries offer a wealth of opportunities. Here's a look at some of our best:
Take a tour at Copper Rivet, Chatham
Set in the heart of Chatham Dockyard, Copper Rivet produces a range of gins (as well as vodka and whisky), but at the height of summer, its Strawberry Gin seems an ideal choice. Distilled using alcohol from wheat, barley and rye, grown especially for the company on local farms, the team say they start with a "rich creamy-smooth base" before distilling a carefully balanced gin, adding Kent strawberries for their unmistakable flavour and colour. Copper Rivet is well worth a visit in its own right - you can tour one of the UK’s only multi-disciplinary 'farm to glass' distilleries, experience the entire process of making gin (and vodka and whisky) from grain to glass. Tours include a tasting of the spirits themselves , and a gin-based drink in Copper Rivet's lovely Pumproom bar-restaurant, which dates from the Victorian era. Afterwards, you may even feel tempted to stay on for lunch...£20 for an hour's tour copperrivetdistillery.com
Another one to try: founded in 2011 by scientists Dr Andy Reason and Dr Norman Lewis, Anno Distillery was the first new distillery to open in the county in 200 years. Since then, the company has gone from gone from strength to strength, producing a wide range of award-winning spirits. We especially like the idea of Anno's 'Magic Gin', made using natural blueberry and strawberry flavours, which changes colour from blue to pink as mixer is added. You can take a tasting tour of the Marden distillery at £30 per person, or have a full hands-on gin making experience (£80 per person), annodistillers.co.uk
Get blending at Greensand Ridge, Shipbourne
Greensand Ridge distillery, run by Will Edge from his beautiful distillery just outside the village of Shipbourne, takes its name from the geographical feature that runs across this neck of the woods. And its USP is not only the flavour of its spirits but its sustainability angle: it's the UK's first carbon-neutral distillery. "We make most of our spirits from surplus produce from local farmers or the food system...where the raw materials are local to us and not suitable for supermarkets," says Will, "Our stills and equipment, our distillery operations and our bottling line are powered by green electricity. Using an electric still instead of running a gas steam boiler is more expensive, but we believe fossils fuels have to remain in the ground." It's also a gin that makes full use of Kent plant life in its mix of eight botanicals. Says Will, "I like to describe the gin as a walk through the woods in the Weald of Kent. [We use] Bay laurel, poppy seeds, oak moss, cobnuts, gorse flowers, hawthorn berries, rosehips and honey. These can be found within a mile of the distillery, although I source the botanicals for distilling from suppliers to ensure consistency of flavour and because in some cases I'd be stripping the local environment of important parts of the ecosystem; better to source from where they are sustainably produced."
You can find out more about the label's ethos, as well as having the chance to concoct your very own gin, at Greensand's two-and-a-half hour distillery experience. You'll enjoy a cocktail while you tour the distillery, learn about the art of distilling the different gin botanicals and how they're combined. Then you'll distil your own full bottle of gin on an individual copper pot still, selecting from a range of over 40 botanicals. The setting sounds lovely for a summer's day: in an old Victorian coach house, set in a lovely courtyard and with sweeping views across the Kent countryside. £125 for two, greensanddistillery.com
Another one to try: Maidstone Distillery may be a relatively new venture, but it's building on our county town's remarkable gin heritage. In 1785 George Bishop - twice mayor of the town - built a new distillery that dominated the Maidstone skyline. By 1803 Maidstone Gin was renowned as one of the finest in Europe. Today, Maidstone Distillery produces everything from a George Bishop Gin to Ranscombe Wild Small Batch gin, infused with mint and meadow flowers from Ranscombe Farm and with a proportion of its proceeds going to support Ranscombe's conservation work with the Plantlife charity. A hands-on gin making experience with Maidstone Distillery £105 per person, themaidstonedistillery.com
Kent Gin School: by Zoom or by boat
Karl Cowell and Roxii Hoare-Smith launched their business offering gin tastings from home via Zoom during the pandemic, bringing them into contact with a vast range of local distillers. Though these days they have their own base in the Locksmeadow complex, Maidstone, they will still offer group tastings online, or a better option in the summer is surely to hop on board a river boat for one of their newly-launched gin cruises. Leaving from Maidstone, you'll glide along the Medway on The Kentish Lady, enjoying a tasting of three Kentish gins that have distilleries close to the river as you sail. £35 per person, kentginco.co.uk
Another one to try: from September. take your seat in one of the 1960s carriages at the Spa Valley Railway, Tunbridge Wells, then set off through the High Weald sampling a selection of three different gins from Anno Distillery, based in Marden. Tonic, a Spa Valley Railway Balloon Gin glass and canapés included in the price. £35 per adult. spavalleyrailway.co.uk
