Safe to drive after 62 ‘clean’ G&Ts
IT WAS once guzzled in such large quantities it earned the nickname mother’s ruin. But now gin is getting a teetotal makeover.
From January, British retailer Sainsbury’s will stock a version of the spirit with so little alcohol that its makers claim you can knock back 62 G&Ts before it becomes unsafe to drive.
Called CleanGin, the new lowalcohol tipple is the brainchild of Vogue Williams’ husband, the former Made In Chelsea reality TV star Spencer Matthews.
It will initially be stocked in 496 Sainsbury’s supermarkets and Matthews says he is in talks about supplying a number of pub, bar and hotel groups.
The 31-year-old, who was a regular on the London social scene, gave up alcohol 18 months ago. He now has a one-yearold son, Theodore, with his Irish model wife, Vogue, and says he called time on his partying days to carve out a career as a serious businessman.
His new venture, called The Clean Liquor Company, aims to cater for the growing numbers of teetotallers with a range of low and no-alcohol spirits.
Clean rum and whisky drinks are also in the pipeline, plus a ‘Clean Green’ spirit containing no alcohol at all to cater for Muslim countries and those who abstain from alcohol completely. The botanical-infused CleanGin drink contains 1.2 per cent alcohol by volume.
Matthews told The Mail on Sunday that you could swap one G&T containing the typical 37.5 per cent ABV for 31 ‘clean’ gin and tonics – meaning drinkers would have to consume 62 G&Ts made with his new product to be ‘anywhere near the limit’.
‘You can drink CleanGin to your heart’s content all night long and always drive home,’ he said.