Solway Spirits Gingerlicious
First Produced
September 2019Still Type
Alembic copper still
The Solway Spirits Gingerlicious Story
Solway Spirits is located on the unspoiled and beautifully wild Solway Coastline. Until May of this year, all of the Solway spirit range (they have a few!) were distilled by Andrew (owner and distiller) in the outbuildings of his cottage, which looked out across the shore at Cummertrees.
The growth in the business meant that Solway has outgrown this site but Andrew loved the location so much that he decided to move to a new building, situated just a few miles away, which he has converted into his own distillery. The new distillery is in Annan and still in sight of the beautiful shore.
Andrew and Kate from Solway Spirits are passionate about quality and use a blend of local botanicals, juniper, coriander, orris root, angelica, orange peel, liquorice root plus a few others which are hand-foraged locally. In the distillation process, they use a rectification column, before cooling the spirit through a condenser to make a silky smooth elixir.
The team at Solway were originally commissioned to make a ginger-based gin for a client who was looking for a sharp gin with a good bite. So Andrew set to work experimenting and distilling, after which he returned to the cottage where Kate was having a baking session. By chance, she had just brought a freshly-baked gingerbread out of the oven and the aroma reminded Andrew of Christmas markets and festive fun. At that moment, he knew he had to capture this wonderful essence and bottle it.
So he infused the original Solway Gin botanicals with gingerbread syrup and Gingerlicious was born! Gingerlicious is produced using Solway craft gin which is then infused with ginger & lime and a hint of gingerbread syrup – it totally captures the essence of Christmas but is so good you will want to drink it all year round!
Key Botanicals
juniper
coriander
angelica
liquorice
lime
root ginger
gingerbread syrup
Tasting Notes
Solway Gingerlicious has an aroma of oriental ginger with aromatic sweet soft undertones, giving way to a hit of ginger on the palate, finishing with hints of sugar and spice that are deliciously smooth and warming.
Kate and Andrew recommend serving it with Fever-Tree Ginger Ale, ice and a slice of lime, or neat over ice.
Expressions
- Solway Dry Gin
- Solway Cherry Almond Bakewell Gin
- Solway Cortes Gin
- Solway Classic Gin
- Solway Passionate Gin
- Solway Rhubarb Crumble Gin
- Solway Apple Caramel Gin
Key Personnel
Andrew Emmerson & Kate Rimmer – Co-Founders
Celidh – helps with bottling and labelling
Lorraine – sales and marketing and general day to day business
Website
The Scottish Gin Society verdict
A sniff of this aromatic gin definitely brings visions of festive evenings to mind, but on tasting it neat with a bit of ice, the drink unfolds to something more complex, but very rewarding. You instantly get the base notes of juniper from the Solway classic gin, but with the warming spice of ginger and a definite little zing from the lime. The great thing is that the ginger doesn’t overpower and makes for a slightly spicy, warm and sweet combination. We then tried it with ginger ale and it really was gingerlicious!
