I came across The Gin Kitchen at a food fair in Dorking and was immediately drawn to its quirky style, great logo and brand image. More importantly, it is a classic example of a micro distillery making small batches of delicious gin by hand, using fresh ingredients, and how a great idea, determination and vision can make a dream come true. Kate Gregory was a single mum going through a divorce with a full-on job in the defence and aerospace industry. Purely by chance, on the way to work one day, Kate tuned in to Radio 4 and listened to a programme about the rise of craft gin distillers in the UK referred to as a gin renaissance movement. This, she says, was her epiphany moment and when The Gin Kitchen was conceived. Arriving at her meeting, she quickly made a call to close friend and colleague Helen Muncie and told her they were going to start their own gin distilling business. This totally out of the blue idea was a shock to both of them, but after thinking it through, they did it anyway.

It is hard not to notice that there has been a flood of new craft gins on the market and reports suggest the number has doubled since 2013. When Kate and Helen decided to start gin distilling, they were complete rookies. Kate’s approach was to search the internet using key words such as ‘how to distill gin’. Between them, Kate and Helen did enough research to source their first copper still from Portugal and secure a workspace at Dorking Brewery. Their first ever gin, Dancing Dragontail, was made at the Brewery on 5 November 2016, although at that point it didn’t have an official name. The distilling process took longer than anticipated and was finally ready to bottle at 3am. Kate and Helen both love the fact that it was literally brewed under moonlight and fireworks and the enthusiasm for their business is still like a newly-lit sparkler.

They were quick to propel their gin onto the market as with no external funding the success of the business needed them to become economically active immediately. To make gin, Kate explained, an alcohol base has to be purchased, often referred to as neutral grain spirit, and it’s rare these days that gin distillers make this themselves. A container of this (organic) costs £1,000 and is enough to make four batches of gin with around 30 bottles in a batch (batch size relates to still size). At this point creativity is unleashed as what makes each gin unique are the botanicals used to give the final flavour profile.