Solar Gin, distilled by the sun

 

When I write about new spirits, there are three things that can really add quality to the article: The quality of the spirit, the story behind the bottle and the marketing that promotes the whole thing.

It doesn’t happen often that I’m a big fan of all three. This time it comes very close.
One of my networking contacts told me she connected to a guy that makes his own gin in a very special way. She told him about my blog and we got in touch. Thanks Yoke 😉, this story is really great.

Kevin van de Merlen has created a pretty good gin, which is distilled by the sun. Yes, read that again. It’s distilled by the sun and that’s why it’s called Solar Gin.

During a long hot summer Kevin decided to build a complete solar-distilling process from scratch. A very bold and impressive idea. On a sunny day, this solar unit creates three times more energy than the average solar panel on your roof. To distil the gin it only uses direct sun warmth. The electricity for the pumps and the controls connected to the still are also fed by the solar unit.

This hand-built project is a very nice example of true sustainability. There is no use of fossil fuel and there is absolutely no loss in the conversion. The electricity saved for the production of one bottle of Solar Gin will light your living room for three days.

The gin is distilled slowly on a low temperature in a copper still. It has a very soft mouthfeel, a floral nose with fresh lemon, cardamom in the finish. You can use it with neutral or floral tonics. I wanted to keep some more sun in my glass, so I combined it with Fever Tree Aromatic Tonic.

For my personal taste this gin is pretty good. I really enjoyed my refreshing Gin & Tonic with citrus notes. I also really love the story of the hand-crafted distilling unit powered by the sun. Now what about the third aspect for my article, the marketing?

This bottle is probably one of the prettiest gin-bottles I have seen in years and it has a very fun gimmick. There is a small light hidden in the bottom of the bottle. Switch it on and you have the sun glowing in your bottle. Love it.
 
Disclaimer : All pictures and texts are copyrighted by Geert Conard and Esito Management & Communications unless stated otherwise in the article. While some items might have been gifted by the producer or distributor, these are in no way paid promotions or recommendations. The pics with Solar logo are copyrighted by Solar Gin.