Ginsanity: Hong Kong gin festival celebrates the popular tipple – mother’s ruin no more
The event assembles more than 50 gins from 32 big name and small batch distilleries, including three with a Hong Kong connection
Not long ago the unfashionable go-to tipple of desperate housewives and weepy drunks, gin is experiencing something of a renaissance. Its reputation as a low-calorie drink has a lot to do with that, thinks Ben Lee.
“There’s a trend among younger people who are getting into gin and have stopped drinking beer or heavy drinks. They are being a bit more health-conscious,” says the man behind Ginsanity festival, at PMQ, in Central, which will offer Hongkongers the chance to sample more than 50 versions from 32 distilleries. “Plus all lagers taste practically the same, while you can have your own twist on G&T and won’t be shunned for it.”
Big brands at the event, including Sipsmith, Chase and Tanqueray, will rub shoulders with smaller names, such as pot still gin producer Míl, which makes an Iberian-Irish fusion of almond, basil, gooseberry and bergamot flavours inspired by Ireland’s 16th-century Spanish settlers.
Unusual tipples among the selection include Osaka-based distillery Suntory’s Roku Gin, which features six distinctively Japanese botanical ingredients that reflect the seasons: sakura leaf and flower for spring, sencha and gyokuro tea for summer, sansho pepper for autumn and citrusy yuzu peel for winter. Perhaps the most unexpected flavours come from New Zealand’s Dancing Sands Distillery, which, alongside more standard barrel-aged and dry varieties, offers saffron, chocolate and wasabi gins.
Hong Kong will be well represented, with three liquors inspired by the SAR, including the crowdfunded Handover Gin – the only gin distilled in the city – which blends ginseng, bitter orange, Chinese cinnamon and horny goat weed.
