The Juniper remains the key ingredient But

Centre stage: Berries, flowers, spices and pickled fruit, the newly added garnishes to the old Classique “G&T”

Colours are changing from the “clear drink” and now dominated of the “cocktail look”, colourful drink served in branded glasses

Being able to taste a Gin and all of its ingredients is the new trend

Sipping neat Gin has become more popular, and less basic tonic is used (12% do not use tonic 2017, up from 1% in 2016)

Huge number of different styles, as the new technology in production, makes it possible to combine and use extract of unusual flavours to the standard gin

According to Will Holt, Director of Cambridgeshire-based Pinkster Gin, the rise is partly fuelled by the current ‘ginaissance’ — as global demand for Gin continues to rise, people are looking for new drinking experiences and producers are quick to innovate and offer something that stands out from the pack
The UK Gin market has increased by 25% over the last 3 years, and it’s forecasted that it will be worth £1.3 billion by 2020

Pinkster Gin was launched in 2013, on the cusp of the UK’s Gin ‘boom’
Made with raspberries grown locally to the company’s Cambridgeshire base
Base spirit made by one of the world’s oldest distilleries G&J Distillers
End product has a pink tinge and works beautifully with Elderflower Tonic Water

Warner Edwards’ Rhubarb Gin is made using a crop of rhubarb originally grown in the kitchen garden of Buckingham Palace during the reign of Queen Victoria

•Excite people through “genuine differentiation and flavour authenticity”. Rhubarb is certainly that, as well as being an inherently British product
•The distinctive tart bittersweet flavour of rhubarb lends itself to Warner Edwards’ smooth Gin, resulting in a perfect balance of sweet and sour.

The Chase Distillery – Juniper Vodka / Single Botanical Gin

“We went bankrupt, and we had to find a way to start making money again and get back up on our feet.”
“if you are going to do something really well, you put your name on”

Tyrrell’s Vodka was born in 2008, and rebranded to Chase, the family name, in 2009

Seville Orange Gin and a Pink Grapefruit Gin simply by playing around with flavours

Their setup is different from most Gin distilleries, in that they grow the ingredients to make their base spirit on the same land as it’s distilled – from farm to field
They were left over with “literally a tonne” of Seville oranges after producing their Orange Vodka, and decided to experiment with Gin

•It makes an excellent Negroni (one-part Chase Seville Orange Gin, one-part Campari, one part red Vermouth. Garnish with orange peel)
•Like their other vodkas, this is based on potato
•The juniper berries which flavour this gin are distilled in our copper gin still with the potato spirit

Jinzu is a side project made by Diageo’s Cameronbridge Distillery Outside Edinburgh

Created by professional bartender Dee Davis who entered Diageo’s “Show Your Spirit” competition in 2013, and Jinzu was his winning entry
•Citrus first, then pine and cherry
•Juniper is the core, but the zest and florals dance on top with fresh cream
•Gentle but long, with each flavour lingering both separately and in harmony

The G’vine distillery has redefined Gin. Instead of using a grain spirit, like most Gin distillers, they use a grape sprit, infused with the rare vine flower’s berry, which blossoms only for a few days in the summery days of June. .

The delicate grape berries are immediately hand-picked and macerated in the neutral grape spirit over a period of several days to obtain the best floral essence. The infusion is then distilled in a small Florentine pot still. This Gin is produced in the region of Cognac, where they certainly know their grape

•Delicate. In the beginning, grape overtakes other senses, then sweet and floral, with a spicy warmth of cardamom and citrus. Smooth, subtle, round, grassy with flowers and spice. The vine flower kicks in, with juniper, cardamom and Ginger in the side role.
•Clean and cool, with the emphasis on the vine flower

Da Mhile seaweed gin is made with a cut-down, hand selected variant of botanicals

•Designed to complement seafood it is infused with handpicked seaweed from the Celtic coast for three weeks, giving it a lovely light green hue before being triple filtered and bottled

Tips and Learnings from the “Gin Corner”

Trends and speed of innovation creates new categories
A market is big enough for both the ‘purists’ and those wanting to experiment with for example flavours – all markets have niches ready to explore
Quality makes you stand out when markets get crowded
Excite people through “genuine differentiation and flavour authenticity” Follow and respond to your followers
Do not forget “Something” that stands out from the pack and tell the story

It is often easy to forget to keep track of what is happening out there in the markets you are serving. You have targets to reach, spreadsheets to finish, worries over complacent distributors, etc.
You cannot visit all your markets every month, but when serving any markets and channels you must have an idea on the “scene” before you seriously start using resources and develop your plan.
The good news is that there are now so many ways you can keep on top of what is really happening out there, so you can now practice what I call “Google and Go” researching and keeping basic knowledge up to date on what is happening and “trending”

Here are some home basic and free tools that are available 24/7 so you can start to create your own product “Gin Corner”

Google alert, where you can input key words for your industry and even follow what your competitors are doing. You simply set up the alert and the time-consuming search from one site to another is done for you in form of email summary alerts.
Many times, you need to fine-tune the electronic search but a great basic screening at no cost and very limited initial time used
Search on Twitter in an instant with or without an account – A great snapshot for what is trending right now
Of course, Facebook can also be used to look up and search for companies, so lots more than just following “old class-mates”
Not forgetting what is trending on YouTube

We are not all web search experts but the above can certainly help you have basic information at no cost at hand when speaking with your markets, partners, sharpening and aligning your offering to match market needs.

Best of all it can be done before your phone calls or your plane lands.

Another good place to know and explore is, of course, Google digital garage. Boost your digital knowledge where they offer free courses on everything from search to social media we all have to know whether we like it or not, we need to follow global trends ourselves.

The Ginaissance

The Juniper remains the key ingredient But

Happy “market trending search” and enjoy knowing that little bit more, maximising your offering to the markets following the local trends.