Four pink gins perfect for summer picnics – including one made in Staffordshire

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Pink gins are still having a moment, and finds itself front and centre on restaurant gin and cocktail menus across the UK. Traditionally gin with angostura bitters, pink gin now tends to be gin distilled with pink fruit, and offers a sweet, and pretty tipple without losing ABV like with gin liqueurs.

If you’re new to pink gin, and want to find your favourite – or you’re just after some miniatures as a cute gift – then the Craft Gin Club pink gin explorers collection is perfect. The set features four pink craft gins from leading UK gin distilleries for just £15.95.

I included some of these little miniatures as part of a girly brunch charcuterie picnic board, and it went down a treat. They’re all 50mls so the equivalent of a double measure, and I took some pink lemonade to drink them with, naturally.

Here are four pink gins you should definitely try out this summer:

Manchester Raspberry Infused Gin

The Manchester Gin Raspberry Infused is a beautiful, fruity pink gin with notes of berry, juniper and citrus. To make the gin, Manchester Gin infuse fresh raspberries before, during and after distillation, giving it its sweetness and shade of pink. Other botanicals in the bottle include: coriander, grapefruit, dandelion, burdock, vanilla, elderberries, cassia, liquorice, grains of paradise and angelica.

Warner’s Rhubarb Gin

Inspired by the first crop of rhubarb to be grown in Queen Victoria’s own kitchen garden, this pink gin combines wonderfully tart, fragrant flavours of rhubarb with rich juniper notes. Warner’s Rhubarb Gin was officially the world’s first rhubarb gin, with every bottle being one-third rhubarb juice, giving it its naturally pink hue. It’s also vegan, and has won multiple prestigious awards, including The Gin Masters Gold (Flavoured Gin) 2019, and also contains juniper, coriander seed, elderflower, cardamom, black pepper, cinnamon, angelica root, orange peel, lemon peel, plus a secret ingredient.

58 Gin Apple & Hibiscus

This smooth fruity gin is made with fresh Cox apples that are all waster or surplus! With 25% of perfectly good apples being wasted on ‘cosmetically defective’ grounds, the distillery have teamed up with Loddington Farm in Kent and use their ‘wonky’ apples to make their gin. The sweet and crisp gin is ripe and citrusy, followed by the light bitter flavour of hibiscus to balance it out. Made in London, it’s a 43% ABV, and contains Juniper, Cox apple, hibiscus, vanilla, coriander, orris root, bergamot, angelica, pink grapefruit, cubeb pepper and lemon.

Nelson’s Rhubarb & Custard Gin

Distilled right here in my home county of Staffordshire is the Nelson’s Rhubarb & Custard gin, which tastes like my favourite old fashioned sweets. The Uttoxeter-based distillery was inspired by the nostalgia of the flavour combo, infusing their original London Dry Gin recipe with rhubarb essence and Madagascan vanilla. Nelson’s Gin is made in small batches, with the recipes carefully crafted by Culinary Arts Master, Neil Harrison, who used his skills as a chef working in Michelin star restaurants to create full-bodied, balanced flavours. In the Rhubarb & Custard gin, its the vanilla that brings out the custard flavour, which is combined with botanicals from around the world, such as lemongrass and kaffir lime leaves from Thailand, and cinnamon from Sri Lanka.

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