Elephant Sloe Gin

Product Description

During a trip to Africa three years ago, Robin Gerlach witnessed first-hand the plight of the African elephant. Ivory poaching has taken its toll on many species and forest elephants have lost much of their roaming grounds to farming. He met wildlife photographer Tessa Wienker, who was working with Space for Elephants Foundation, an organisation that helps to create new paths for elephants to allow them to migrate safely. The pair decided to team up and create a socially-minded business to help preserve African wildlife for future generations. “We didn’t want to create a charity, we wanted to create a product that people could touch,” said Mr Gerlach. Mr Gerlach, a keen gin enthusiast, had always dreamed of running his own still. He began researching African botanicals to find out if he could create a unique London gin with an African spin. “Gin can be boring, all citrus and juniper,” he said. “I wanted to do something new.” He found a schnapps distillery in Germany that was willing to make gin for the pair in its downtime. It took a year, 30 iterations, and many thousands of wasted litres, before the recipe for Elephant Gin was perfected.

Elephant Gin and its founders are passionate about elephant conservation and strongly believe that the current generation has a responsibility to support the African wildlife of today, so others may continue to enjoy it in the future. By contributing 15% of its profits to Big Life Foundation and Space For Elephants, Elephant Gin takes an active part in supporting the foundations’ activities.

Hazy, crimson red in colour. The bouquet shows red berry and sloe berry fruit with cracked black pepper and faint grilled almond. Brawny cracked black pepper spice and tart sloe berry fruit with faint lavender. Relatively dry compared to some other sloe gins. Raspberry, sloe berries, cracked black pepper and faint lavender. Some will be attracted by this sloe gin’s unfiltered hazy appearance while others will find it off-putting. The palate is drier, more tart, than many other sloe gins – perhaps a tad to dry and peppery for some. We liked the pronounced sloe berry fruit flavours and subtle lavender notes.