Foraging has been an intrinsic part of our culinary traditions dating back to our hunter-gatherer ancestors.
Many of us have dabbled in foraging. There’s a purity in the joy of getting purple fingers plucking blackberries from a hedgerow during a late summer walk. A little bit of jeopardy battling the wasps snatching ripe plums. A wholesomeness in the weight of wild apples from woodland trees.
For those in more urban areas – there’s something weirdly intoxicating about the pineapple scent of wild chamomile growing on sidewalks. The ultimate heady scent? Collecting elderflower for a brew. The ultimate in satisfaction level? Picking up sea rosemary or samphire on the coast. Meanwhile the secretive nature of seeking sloes for a festive batch of fruit-infused gin so that no-one else gets there first is REAL .
It’s one of life’s simple pleasures. Even when it involves the likes of gorse and all those prickles to contend with. Same goes for the chestnuts too…
With so many botanicals growing all around us, it’s little wonder this ancient practice has found a frequent and fashionable role in modern gin production. It weaves together nature, craftsmanship and innovation.
Foraging is a concept that sounds romantic and bucolic, but is more challenging than it may initially seem… Here’s the low down on what happens in the context of gin making.
Why would a distiller forage for Gin botanicals?
Put simply, foraging is one of the best ways to create a truly local product. The result is almost guaranteed to be a unique gin that captures the spirit of the land. It’s an intrinsic way to build terroir.
It’s also very apt too. The heart of gin lies in its botanicals, chief amongst them is juniper berries, which predominantly grow wild and require to be foraged. While there are commercial suppliers, ‘farmed’ juniper remains a distant concept. Most plants are scattered across quite large areas of land.
Even when done at a significant scale and from crops cultivated for that purpose, the process is the same as it is for foragers. There’s no mechanical aids and the rustic method of harvesting remains the most effective. Teams simply strike the bushes with a stick and collect the fallen, ripe berries.
Today’s gin distillers are venturing further afield and looking at similar ideas for other ingredients. Beyond the farmed, beyond the dried – fresh from the fields and directly into the still.
The benefits are clear. Some offer unique and complex flavours that simply can’t be found in cultivated counterparts.
Secondly, using local, foraged botanicals helps distillers create gins that reflect their local terroir. Canadian apples are different to English and so on… The same is true for citrus, flowers and herbs – each has a distinct note. Honey is another obvious example of this too.
Just as wine is renowned for its representation of place, through its botanicals gin can also embody the character of its geographical origins.
Three angles on why brands pursue it
There are several pioneering distilleries pushing the boundaries of foraging. Brands such as The Botanist from Islay, Caorunn from Speyside, and Apiary gin from Tamworth have all skilfully harnessed the essence of their local landscapes through the use of foraged botanicals.
The Botanist gin is a concoction of nine traditional gin botanicals and an additional 22 native botanicals from the island of Islay, where it’s made. They have managed to build a huge volume of sales while still foraging sustainably.
Beyond flavour – foraging is a tool for differentiation
Both Caorunn and The Botanist have even used foraging as core to their brand identities. Each has delved into the foraging movement to help articulate what their USP is to drinkers. Which is fair enough – foraged ingredients are a large part of their flavour profile! They have organised training sessions, tastings, discussions, and even cocktail contests centred around the concept of foraging.
Hernö High Coast Gin is a masterclass in foraged ingredients harnessed to spectacular effect. Each year the gin changes depending on what they collect. Meanwhile, foraging for ingredients is a part of their yearly bartender cocktail competition.
When seen with this wider lens, foraging zooms out from being this hyper local focus on individual flavour and into something much bigger. It’s a means to tell a story of geography. It’s about conveying a producer’s connection to a place and how that is imbued into the gin being made. Because of that, it’s a tool with which others can connect to their story and their terroir too.
Foraging for the star ingredient
Other brands use foraging as a way of connecting the star ingredient, juniper, to their specific locale. Both North & South America has a diverse variety of juniper (see Juniper article for more). Producers there have been hunting for something unique for their gins for years already…
For example, Molly Cummings, founder of WildGins chooses to travel all the way to the Apache Mountains from her Austin, Texas distillery to forage berries from two native species. She seeks the alligator juniper and red berry juniper.
Distilleries such as South Hollow Spirits and New Riff Distillery have also integrated the use of Eastern red cedar, a wild juniper variety, into their gin production. The result is a subtly piney flavour profile steeped in a sense of place. Further south, Bosque Gin in Argentina sticks to common juniper but use specifically sourced Patagonia batches.
Meanwhile across the world, Hapusa famously collects its juniper form the Himalayas. It’s inclusion in the recipe adds a distinctly earthy tone to their world class gin. So does Procera in Africa.
Through foraging locally sourced juniper – these producers do not just stay true to the core flavour of gin. They do so in a way that is inimitably authentic and that transcends through the flavour journey. It connects their audience succinctly to both where they are from and what gin is about.
Local or locale
A sense of place in liquid form is about more than using singular ingredients from a specific locale, however. It’s about evoking the idea of somewhere that often means using combination of local ingredients and sourced botanicals manipulated in specific ways.
The masters at this is west coast distiller, St George Spirits and their Terroir Gin.
Local botanicals such as California bay laurel, Douglas fir, coastal sage, and fennel set the stage for the gin. But it’s supplemented by traditional botanicals that have been tailored to suit the story and scene they intend drinkers to travel to.
For example, they roast the coriander seed before distilling it. The cinnamon adds warmth that mimics the smell of the earth. Cardamom augments the herbal aromatics. Without these the profile wouldn’t be as vividly transportive. Each sip of this gin is like a sensory walk through the aromatic trials of the iconic Mount Tamalpais – even though it’s been constructed using botanicals from both there and elsewhere. It’s quite spectacular as a feat of flavour layering and delicious to drink!
Taking this approach to foraging for local flavour involves asking what adds a sense of place, and what needs to be brought in to capture it fully. If the idea is to represent an environment through flavour, that’s often better done through botanical manipulation at the distillery, rather than the source location of the ingredients.
The flip side of foraging
Despite its many advantages for both flavour and branding, foraging presents its share of challenges.
The availability of foraged ingredients can fluctuate significantly due to variations in weather and environmental conditions, making it difficult for distillers to maintain a consistent flavour profile. Meanwhile, even if availability isn’t an issue, flavour consistency might be.
This can be a problem if customers are expecting a certain taste. That said, it can be spun into a positive if the producer is savvy enough to time stamp vintages, as it allows them to renew interest each time the new harvests come in. Grape infused gins do this well on a slightly different but related level.
Seasonal abundance means long stints of scarcity
Seasonality also becomes a critical factor. Foraged botanicals have specific times of the year when they are ripe for harvesting, potentially impacting year-round production.
Producers might have to forage and store large quantities of botanicals during their peak season – easier said than done. Alternatively, they need to adjust their production schedule to accommodate the availability of these ingredients.
For those reliant on a foraged ingredient, a combination of accurate forecasts for the amount needed in the year ahead and also, effective preservation techniques (like freezing) is paramount. Many who do this distill individual botanicals when they are at their peak and then blend distillates to create batches throughout the year.
Both Kyro Distilling and Ki-No-Bi Gin are producers who have needed to walk this fine line in the past.
Sustainability and tokenism
Furthermore, while foraging is seen as a sustainable practice, it can have adverse impacts on local ecosystems if not done responsibly. Over harvesting can lead to a depletion of natural resources and disturbance of habitats.
Distillers need to strike a balance between harvesting and conservation, ensuring their practices respect and preserve the environments that gift them these precious botanicals.
Furthermore, using a foraged ingredient as a large part of the brand identify because it is local and photogenic – but that’s then not palpable is an issue. Drinkers are clever and see through token additions quickly…
Foraging adds wild potential, but it isn’t without pitfalls
While foraging adds an extra layer of complexity to gin production, the reward is a spirit that resonates with unique taste and character that sets it apart from the rest.
After all – isn’t that what gin’s about? Creating a gin is not just about distilling a spirit; it’s about distilling a story – and when it comes to using foraged ingredients, it’s one that’s deeply connected to the land.
Each gin encapsulates a journey, a moment in time, and a unique expression of the place it was made, or the place it is trying to conjure. The use of local botanicals can create an authentic connection between the drinker and the terrain, making every sip a testament to the environment and an immersive, taste-led exploration of local terroir.
