HYKE Gin 70cl – IWSC Gold Award Winning London Dry Gin, Sustainably made with Grape Spirit and Flavoured with Unique Botanicals

Product Information

I’d recommend keeping this spirit chilling in the fridge. I think it just elevates it a smidge with some more smoothness. It’s a really great gin to pair with a simple tonic.

Herbs are one of the most commonly thrown out items from our fridges so save yourself some money as well as helping the planet by growing your own; in a little pot in your kitchen, a window box or wild and free in your garden. Thyme, basil and mint are good ones to start with and feature in lots of delicious drinks.

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Considering it was King William III – better known as William of Orange – who first popularised gin in the UK in the 17th century, it seems fitting that orange gins are currently having their time in the spotlight. As sales in the flavoured gin category continue to boom, it seems safe to concur that orange gins will continue to thrive in 2021, with twists on traditional flavours continuing to emerge, such as blood orange, clementine and orange blossom gins. Didsbury Gin’s Blood Orange & Ginger expression is made by infusing fresh blood orange and ginger with the base of Didsbury’s Original Gin, and it sits alongside Raspberry & Elderflower and Strawberry & Sicilian Lemon bottles in its collection. Didsbury Gin’s Blood Orange and Ginger Gin James Oag-Cooper, MD and co-founder of Foxhole Spirits comments: “We knew that there was something special that could and ‘should’ be done with this quality by-product, so we applied our expertise and craftsmanship to the challenge. The result is a totally unique product which tastes exceptionally delicious, is beautifully presented, sustainably conscious and yet still affordable.”

The marketing spiel says this is “gin, just as it should be”, and while marketing spiels are usually guff, this one happens to be spot on. It’s hard to find a gin simultaneously this archetypal – it’s a classic London Dry – this elegant, and this flavourful (the finish goes on and on). Whether you’re a G&T obsessive or martini connoisseur, No. 3 hits the mark every time. Though, for the record: we like it best with a slug of classic Indian tonic. Zest the lemon and let that steep in HYKE Gin with some sprigs of lemon thyme. Go easy with herbs though you don’t want them to overpower the gin. Once again keep tasting it and once it is how you like it you can strain and enjoy. HYKE, a new, premium gin made in England using grape spirit produced from surplus fresh table grapes, is set to launch on Monday 18th March , Global Recycling Day. HYKE ingeniously re-invents the equivalent of 1.4 million punnets* of internationally sourced grapes per year, that are surplus to the requirements of the supply chain, as a luxury, handcrafted spirit.

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So, what’s all the fuss about? We caught up with three British distillers to find out how they make their zesty gins, and to get their thoughts on where this category is going. Taste the waste There's a lot of new #Gin out there but this stuff is properly exciting. Made from waste grapes, so #Sustainable” - Pritesh Mody (Sunday Brunch) Just chop some pear and rhubarb into small chunks and submerge in a jar with HYKE Gin. Keep tasting it as the days go by then strain and drink it whenever it’s at your desired 'fruitiness' level. Fragrant and delicate with mellowing rooibos tea contributing to a very harmonious blend of botanicals” - 4.5* Excellent (Difford’s Guide) See it

The LIVE virtual tastings are carried out in the last week of the month. Please keep an eye on our socials for confirmed dates! HYKE Gin and HYKE Gin Very Special are part of our wider mission to make delicious, luxurious spirits using natural surplus materials generated by other businesses. As well as helping to cut waste-to-landfill from the winemaking and retail sectors, using surplus grapes reduces our reliance on specially-grown, single-purpose materials, which require land, energy and other resources to produce. The base spirit for HYKE is made from some of the 713 tonnes of fresh table grapes deemed not suitable for fresh consumption each year – thus reducing food waste. We’re keen on supporting local viticulture as our award-winning Foxhole Gin is crafted using the rare and valuable by-products from the English grape harvest; English wine grapes.

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Highlights include an urban mushroom farm, the internet sensation ‘Symmetry Breakfasts’ and a toilet made from surplus cow manure! Taste it

Foxhole Spirits and importer Richard Hochfeld Ltd thought these grapes, which can’t be supplied as a fresh product, could be reinvented in a different, more delicious way. Together, we came up with an ingenious solution that takes surplus grapes to a brighter destination as our newest gin – HYKE.The key to our gins’ individual characters – which distinguish them both from each other and other ‘grape gins’ - is that we design our botanical recipes around the specific qualities and flavour profiles of their respective grape spirits. In effect, the grape spirit acts as an extra ‘liquid botanical’, helping to balance and enhance the finished products, and give them their density, viscosity and rich, velvety mouthfeel. HYKE Gin Johnny explains, “We dilute the gin that has come off the still with about 80 per cent of the water needed to bring it down to bottling strength. We then infuse it with a highly concentrated and distilled blood orange essence, and add a little bit of sugar. We then add the remaining water to bring it to our bottling strength of 43% ABV. All the ingredients we use are natural.” But what does James attribute this growing orange gin trend to? “I feel it’s down to two key things,” he says. “Firstly, it’s an evolution of the pink gin trend, which paved the way for more flavour-led gins. Plus the fact that gin drinkers want to discover – and are thirsty for – new expressions for their G&Ts, and are looking for variety in their repertoire.” James also predicts this thirst for variation could lead to “more fragmentation” in the flavoured gin category, adding that, “Orange gins will have more competition as distillers get more adventurous.” Zest and zing