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Discover, Sip, Repeat: Your Adventure Begins Here
This month sees the launch of our brand new gin, a collaboration between independent British businesses SplitsDrinks and RK. This beautiful pink elixir is a combination of years of research, one too many tipples and a celebration of the best British produce.
SplitsDrinks started its life as a mobile bar and soon moved into online drinks retail, eventually leading to opening two shops. One at Middleton Hall and the other at Mitchell’s Exclusive Shopping in Sutton Coldfield. Along the way we have discovered and worked with a range of passionate producers, RK being one of whom they have struck up a great friendship with.
RK Vodka is a premium spirit from the heart of the country made from the very best British sugar beet. It is a wonderfully smooth vodka, distilled only once to retain all the beautiful aromas and flavours. Many people don't know that gin actually starts life as a simplified vodka, which makes this collaboration even more fitting.
The two companies have come together to create a collaboration gin, Kiron from RK says “We toyed with the idea of doing a gin for about two years but nothing came into fruition. We have known the SplitsDrinks team for a few years now from doing different events and various collaborations and have built a great friendship with them. SplitsDrinks mentioned that they wanted to develop their own gin, so with our background knowledge of spirit production and SplitsDrinks understanding of the gins people want to drink and enjoy, it seemed like the perfect partnership”.
The SplitDrinks team have always been blown away by the standard of craft gins being made by passionate producers. Emily adds “The quality of the drinks we see coming through the shop is outstanding, people have such a passion for what they create”. Running the shops and bars has given them an outlet to share these passions with people who enjoy artisan products. Tom adds “we wanted to be part of this movement, to create our own gin. Where our first shop is located at Middleton Hall Courtyard we are surrounded by beautiful gardens. In the summer the air is filled with the magnificent aromas of roses and the jammy smell of sun soaked raspberries. This really influenced us when picking botanicals to flavour the gin”.
The plan was to make a London Dry style but adding botanicals to create a fruity and floral pink gin. Initially the team focused on research and development, creating three different dry styles of gin, each with a range of botanicals.
“We wanted to really hit the mark first and foremost with an outstanding dry gin to act as a base, with the addition of raspberry and rose to work alongside and elevate the flavours” Emily says.
The gin began its life as 12 liters of sugar beet molasses spirit, steeping and distilling juniper, coriander, angelica, cassia, liquorice, honey, lemon peel, bay leaf and macadamia nut. The next process was to macerate the fresh botanicals in the alcohol, imparting the flavours of 5 kilos of fresh raspberries in it for a week. Halfway through that process rose petals were added and it was left to macerate for seven days.
The gin uses a wide range of botanicals to build a strong wall of flavour coming from the juniper, coriander,angelica, cassia and liquorice. The honey adds floral elements as well as a delightful viscus mouthfeel but the distillation process removes the sweet element from the final gin. A citrus tang from the lemon works as a background to create a subtle balanced flavour, bolstering the fruity and floral components. The oil packed macadamia nuts work in collaboration with the honey to enrich the texture of the gin, imparting a nutty taste on the finish.
Finally the base gin and raspberry and rose spirit are blended leaving a wonderful pink colouration and a fresh natural fruit and floral flavour.
What this gin is about is two small independent businesses with the same ideas and mindset coming together to create a product that captures the essence of both brands.
The gin is now available to buy online and in store at Middleton Hall and Mitchell’s.
