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Retailing at over £200 a bottle and containing approximately 62 ants this is gin drinking for the intrepid with deep pockets.
Copenhagen-based gastronomic researchers, Nordic Food Lab collaborated with the first UK company specialising in tailor made gins, The Cambridge Distillery to create this distinctive flavoured concoction. Juniper. Notes of pine. A touch of coriander. And... ants? comments the Huffington Post on the Anty-gin's flavour profile.
Ants were chosen as they have a very specific citrus flavour stemming from the formic acid they spray in defence. William Lowe of The Cambridge Distillery explained to the Telegraph. "We want eyebrows to be raised. The whole point of Anty Gin is to open people's eyes to the possibility of insects being used as a viable source of food and flavour."
Red Wood ants were foraged from the forests of Kent in the UK before placing them in strong ethanol. Anty-Gin is a combination of wood ant distillate, Bulgarian juniper berries and wild springtime botanicals including: wood avens (Geum urbanum), nettle (Urtica dioica), and alexanders seed (Smyrnium olusatrum). In order to ensure the quality of base alcohol the spirit is made from 100% organic grown English wheat.
Miles Irving foraging for around 6000 ants in Kent:
The distillation process every distillation is carried out just one litre a time into 42% proof ant flavoured concoction :
Using a 1924 typewriter each product label is typed one at a time giving each bottle an authentic craft feel.
Batch 001 consisting of 99 bottles (already sold out) took a year to make, Batch 002 is now on sale.
Anty-Gin can be bought from The Cambridge Distillery website.
