Spring has sprung and we’re toasting the new season with a honey-infused gin causing a buzz amongst gin connoisseurs. Meet the Apiarist Gin, hand-picked by Craft Gin Club’s experts to be March’s Discovery Gin.

What exactly is a Discovery Gin? In addition to the Gin of the Month Craft Gin Club sends its members every month, its panel of experts select a spirit to satisfy gin drinkers with a taste for adventure. And the Apiarist Gin is amongst the most exciting ones in the Discovery series yet!

Crafted by a husband-and-wife duo based in the Staffordshire countryside, every batch is infused with the complex flavours of freshly harvested honey, as well as a tea that costs almost 30 times its weight in gold.

March 2021’s Discovery Gin

The Apiarist Gin

Distilled in Staffordshire, UK

40% ABV

Tasting Notes

Golden in colour, the liquid has vibrant notes of lemon peel on the nose, followed by a wash of honey sweetness and the earthy notes of the tea on the palate. These linger long on the finish, with the full-bodied mouthfeel leaving behind a pleasant impression.

Botanicals

Juniper, Coriander, Orris Root, Lemon Peel

Infused With

Honey and Da Hong Pao Tea

Meet the Makers

Even though Alex and Natalie Conti had been beekeeping for quite a few years, it wasn’t until COVID struck that they decided to infuse a gin with their exquisite honey.

Together the husband-and-wife duo run a travel company specialising in arrangements for international art exhibitions, but the pandemic meant pressing pause on their business.

Alex says, “In a normal year we would be away for roughly four months out of the year, but that all changed in March 2020. Suddenly we were at home much more, spending more time in our garden where our apiary is. Beekeeping became a bit more than a hobby. It was a bit of an obsession at that point. We really took the time to think like a bee,” laughs Alex. 

Natalie and Alex began planning out how they could redesign their hives, thinking carefully about weather patterns and what plants they could grow to boost the bee population. The result was a bigger harvest of honey than ever before, and together they began dreaming up ways of putting their surplus honey to good use.

As long-time lovers of craft gins, they began to consider how they could infuse the flavours of their fresh honey into a juniper-forward spirit.

Alex says, “Our honey has a real complexity to it – it comes straight from our hives, and we don’t heat it up or filter it. It’s effectively raw honey, and with raw honey you get a real sense of depth because there’s a lot of pollen in there that typically gets removed during commercial processes.”

He continues, “Historically honey was used to sweeten up bathtub gins (ones made illicitly during the prohibition) and make them more palatable, but with our honey we wanted to create something completely new and unique. We realised the pollen in the honey could give the gin this amazing sense of provenance because it’s straight from the flowers within a couple of miles of where we are. We also realised it has this wonderful sense of seasonality because batches made at different times of year will have the pollen from different types of flowers.”

To start, Alex and Natalie wanted a clean canvas to showcase the flavours in their honey. They decided to create a classic juniper-forward gin with only four botanicals: juniper, lemon peel, orris root and coriander.

Alex explains, “There’s a school of thought now that you need something like 50 botanicals to make an unusual or complex gin, but we actually thought the opposite. We wanted a clear London Dry Gin expression to showcase the nuanced flavours of the honey.”

Working with a master distiller, they crafted their first batch of honey-infused gin. It tasted delicious, yet something was missing.

Alex says, “The honey doesn’t actually give the liquid any colour once distilled – more of a haze that comes from the pollen – so we ended up with this kind of shimmery, silvery gin. It had its attraction – it was quite pretty to look at in a Christmassy way. But it just didn’t say honey to us. We wanted to find a way to add a touch of colour to the liquid, while ensuring it remained completely natural.”

In the end they settled on Da Hong Poa Tea, the most expensive tea in the world. Alex and Natalie experimented with infusing it into their gin along with the honey. To their great pleasure, they discovered that not only did it give the liquid a gorgeous, honeyed colour, but also a flavour that balanced the honey and gave the spirit a long smooth finish.

The final result? A stunning spirit, that has been bewitching gin lovers up and down the country, including Craft Gin Club’s experts.

Each bottle captures the freshness of the British countryside, with flavours plucked directly from the pollen of blossoms surrounding the apiary.

Best of all, every drop of the stuff contributes to the welfare of the bees which create the delicious honey used to make it.

Alex says, “One thing most people don’t know is that all the profits made from this gin go straight back into the apiary, so buying it supports our bees by allowing us to keep looking after them.”

How to Drink The Apiarist Gin

The Apiarist Gin & Tonic

50ml Apiarist Gin
200ml high-quality Indian tonic water
Lemon peel, to garnish

Add all your ingredients to a highball or copa glass with ice and stir gently before serving.

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Bee’s Knees

50ml Apiarist Gin
2 tsp runny honey
20ml fresh lemon juice
10ml fresh orange juice
Twist of orange peel or thyme, to garnish

Add the gin to a cocktail shaker and stir in the honey. Add the lemon and orange juices and add ice. Shake well and strain into a cocktail coupe. Garnish and enjoy.

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Martinez

40ml Apiarist Gin
20ml sweet vermouth
10ml maraschino liqueur
1 dash angostura bitters
Maraschino cherry or orange twist, to garnish

Stir all the ingredients over ice for about 20 seconds, then strain into a chilled coupe or martini glass. Garnish and serve.