​What is gin made from?

Gin is made from neutral spirit, distilled with botanicals (herbs, spices, fruit, etc - which must include juniper berries), and diluted with water to a strength of at least 37.5% ABV (alcohol by volume).

Neutral spirit has been made traditionally from fermenting ingredients such as grains, potatoes, fruit and sugar cane.

While the alcohol and juniper are the key ingredients, gin makers add a bewildering array of botanicals to make their gin stand out from the crowd.

These include many different fruits (rhubarb is currently very popular), seaweed and other ingredients found on the shoreline, honey and even ants!

The bottom line is that gin must be made from a very small number of ingredients, but beyond this, they can be almost infinite!

The full York Gin range is vegan - we use a basic nine botanicals of juniper, coriander seeds, angelica root, cardamom, cinnamon bark, dried lemon peel, orris root, black pepper and grains of paradise for our London Dry and ‘Outlaw’ Navy Strength.

We then add extras in our other four gins - like cocoa nibs and fresh oranges in our Chocolate & Orange, and a sugar syrup made by Yorkshire's Michelin-starred Star Inn for our Old Tom.

York Gin has won many awards at the world's top spirits competitions, with the Old Tom winning several golds including Best English Old Tom at the World Gin Awards, our London Dry winning Gold at the New York International Spirits Competition, and York Gin Outlaw Navy Strength winnnig Double Gold at the San Francisco World Spirits Competition. 

Take a look at our full range here