DAVID T. SMITH

The exciting rise of Chinese gin

Our contributing editor is looking to the east

This year I’ve had the privilege of participating in the 2021 World Gin Awards, which has had hundreds of entries from the far corners of the world; it seems that almost every country is now making gin. One group of entries that particularly caught my eye were those from China.

China has been, until recently, relatively quiet on the gin scene. It was only in 2020 that I tried a Chinese gin for the first time (courtesy of my colleague Aaron Knoll in the USA). That gin was The Sun Gin, which launched in 2019 and is produced by Shanghai Siyanli Industrial Co. Ltd. The gin has a bright citrus and leafy character with some discernible juniper and is especially refreshing in long drinks. This was a promising start in my quest to explore Chinese gin and things only got better.

Herbit Gin (stylised as G!N) was created by Australian ex-pats Sean and Nicole Edgington and is made in Ningbo, a coastal city in the north-east of Zhejiang province. Speaking to them recently, they told me how the gin scene is really starting to gain momentum in China and that a wide range of drinks were gaining popularity, from the Gin & Tonic to a number of gin cocktails.

There are currently three gins in the Herbit collection, each made using a base spirit of sugar cane (made in-house) and a mix of classic botanicals and more local flavours. Red Lantern Gin includes botanicals such as frangipania (a flower), pomegranate and fresh mandarin; Blue Dragon Gin has xiang sha, ginger and lotus; and New Black Gin has blueberries, turmeric and cinchona.

Herbit Gin is not alone in its use of local botanicals; Peddlers Gin of Shanghai is made using botanicals such as Buddha’s Hand, East Asian mint and lotus flowers. It makes both a dry gin and one aged in French oak.

Another gin – Crimson Pangolin – was first released in December 2017 by two Shanghai ex-pats, David Munoz and Helena Kidacka. The spirit is produced in the city of Changsha (whose history dates back to 3000BC) in Hunan Province, south central China. Explaining the inspiration for the gin, Munoz said, “China has an abundance of flavours and botanicals that are seldom used by Western gins. We wanted to create an exciting product with an oriental flair.” Crimson Pangolin currently has four expressions, all bottled at 40% ABV: Original (citrus and spice), Black Goji and Jasmine, Peach Rose (a homage to tea), and an Oak Barrel aged edition.

It is not just the botanicals themselves that can distinguish a Chinese gin, and for some, the location itself has an impact on the spirit’s flavour. Shangri-La Youyun Distilling Company is based in Shangri-La City, in the foothills of the Tibetan Alps at an altitude of 3,300m. For reference, Denver, Colorado is at around 1,600m, Mexico City is at 2,250m, and London is at about 11m. This matters for the process of distillation; as the elevation increases, air pressure decreases and the boiling point of alcohol falls. Just like in the process of vacuum distillation, a lower pressure means that the botanicals are heated less and there is less danger of flavours becoming stewed. This can have a significant impact on the flavours distilled from more delicate, especially floral and citrus, botanicals.

The thing that really excites me about all of the Chinese gins I’ve tried is that they clearly demonstrate their distillers’ attention to detail and technical proficiency; every one could easily hold its own among many of the long-established London Dry Gins. When this high-quality approach is then combined with the cornucopia of fresh botanicals available from the flora of China, the result is a flurry of impressive aromas and flavours.

Distillers in other countries might think that the emergence of quality gins from a country relatively new to the gin market is just additional competition in an already healthy market, but the development of a local distilling scene tends to raise interest in gin in general for both domestic and imported brands. There is still plenty of space in the world of gin and the arrival of the Chinese market and producers is both welcome and well worth exploring.

This was a promising start in my quest to explore Chinese gin and things only got better