Are you a gin lover eager to try new interesting flavours and want to support elephants in Africa? Then you need to find out more about Elephant Gin.
It was only a few lines, nestled in the lower corner of a magazine page yet the note captured my attention. Likely helped by the accompanying picture of an elephant, one of my favourite wild animals.
The note simply mentioned Elephant Craft Gin, a London Dry Gin produced in Germany had recently won an award. No other information and nothing about the choice of the name which certainly had to have a unique story?
Of course it has, and it is a fantastic one and one that makes drinking elephant gin extra special, not only because of its high quality and great taste.
Elephant Craft Gin is the brainchild of Robin Gerlach who, you might guess it, not only is passionate about gin but also Africa and more precisely African Elephants.
The latter passion stems from his travels to South Africa with his wife Tessa who also worked with Space4Elephants for a couple of weeks.
The idea was to craft a unique high-quality London Dry Gin that not only features the flavours of the African continent. Elephant Gin donates 15% of the profits from every full-size bottle sold to various charities supporting African elephants, including Big Life Foundation. These foundations help rangers to protect elephants against poachers as well as running education projects in local communities.
Meanwhile, Elephant Gin also sells 50 ml miniature bottles of which again 15% of the profit is donated to the well-known Sheldrick Wildlife Trust near Nairobi supporting 24/7 specialist care, nutrition, veterinary care, medications to orphaned baby elephants as well as keeper salaries and housing.
What’s amazing, in the short time of its life, Elephant Gin has contributed over € 500,000 to its partner foundations thanks to the profit donations and fundraising events.
That story alone certainly is worth supporting the brand. What’s more, they have created an excellent and unique gin that makes a great addition to any gin lovers gin cabinet.
Elephant London Dry Gin is produced with14 different botanicals which are all hand-selected, including several rare ones from Africa never been used for gin-making before such as Baobab, Buchu plant, Devil’s Claw and African Wormwood alongside the more traditional ones like juniper and orange peel.
Despite the wide variety of botanicals, the gin’s prevalent aroma remains the classical juniper. On the palate, it is complex yet amazingly smooth and dominated by a pleasant sweetness that reminds of creamy vanilla while the juniper remains in the background.
In fact, on the hand-written label of each batch you will find the name of an elephant which in the past was helped by one of the producers’ partner foundations.
On the miniature bottles these names refer to one of 22 baby elephants looked after by the Sheldrick Trust.
Although I am not so much of a fan of sweetish liqueurs, I’ve been tempted to try Elephant Gin’s sloe gin. It combines the London Dry Gin with the classic flavour of wild fresh sloe berries, and it is limited to one vintage a year.
The berries will be macerated for several months in the Dry Gin and thus delivering their characteristic flavour as well as the dark red colour to the spirit. Meanwhile its sugar content is relatively low compared to other sloe gins whilst it has a higher alcohol volume of 35% ABV.
The sloe gin rents itself nicely to be mixed in cocktails but can also enjoyed pure. On the palate, it has a richly rounded, lightly sweet and finely fruity aroma.
Do you love drinking gin? What unique labels have you tried recently?
Carrots and Tigers 