Description

Known for its uses in beer, Sussex Hops have been carefully cultivated and picked to be used as one of the leading botanicals in Mayfield Gin. The variety of hop was found growing wild in a local Sussex hedgerow before it was cultivated by award winning hop farmer Andrew Hoad. This variety brings a unique floral note and some sweet bitterness supported by the citrus, giving some fresh and zesty notes.

Juniper Berries Juniper berries are the primary botanical of all gins. The Juniper gives the gin the traditional character as well as some body to the product along with green, pine, woody and spice notes.

ORANGE PEEL Orange peel and segments are often used as botanicals in gin, both fresh and dry, due to the distinctive citrus notes. They use dried orange peel as a botanical to add freshness to their blend and to create a unique citrus note to balance with the lemon peel.

LEMON PEEL Another strong citrus botanical is dried lemon peel; working with the orange peel, they use this to add further complexity to the citrus notes but also to bring a slight bitterness to the finished liquid.

ANGELICA ROOT Angelica is a commonly used botanical throughout the history of gin; its root is normally used but a number of distillers will use the seeds and sometimes even the flower as a botanical. To create Mayfield Gin they used the root of Angelica as they find it brings an earthy and dry taste.

CORIANDER SEED Coriander seed is another one of our eight important botanicals; they found it enhances the fresh and zesty notes from the Sussex Hop. Coriander seed is hugely important within the gin industry and is actually the second most commonly used botanical after juniper berries.

LIQUORICE This sweet and woody botanical has been used a sugar alternative for centuries, however don’t confuse this with liquorice sweets…this botanical brings out a unique woody taste and works extremely well with Angelica root, creating that distinct dry, earthy taste.

ORRIS ROOTS The Iris flower is common throughout the world and its roots have been used as a botanical for gin for quite some time. Orris roots take a long time to prepare before they can be used as a botanical. The roots take a few years to grow to a point of harvest, and they are then picked and dried for many years before being ground into a fine powder. Known for their unique floral, sweet smell Orris roots are not only used to fix the aroma but also to bind the scents of other botanicals

MACERATION After picking our botanicals we macerate each botanical with alcohol, this process consists of breaking up/slicing the botanicals to create a larger surface area, this allows the alcohol to leach the flavour. Each botanical is macerated separately in sugar-beet alcohol for 3 – 5 days at distillery temperature.

DISTILLATION Each botanical is then individually distilled in our traditional copper pot still.