Managing a physical product
As a digital product manager, it’s humbling to sometimes work on a physical product that you deliver to your customer in person.
Making gin from scratch for my side hustle Animal Spirits, a new craft spirits company, was a particular interesting – and intense – experience. Even though the project started back in 2018, the launch took place bang in the middle of the two lockdowns, right towards the end of 2020.
Read more if you want to learn more about how we chose to design, produce and bottle the winning craft gin formula. This post was originally published on the Animal Spirits website.
A new kind of Spirit
With over 300 distilleries in England alone and hundreds of new gins popping up every year, does the world need another craft gin? Well… we wanted to create more than gin.
We wanted to bring the best of microbiology, design and storytelling to the world of distilling. We wanted to create a new, collectable spirits brand, starting with the most exquisitely balanced gin.
This is the story of how the Rabbit Gin formula came to be. From defining its character, through to capturing, distilling and bottling its Animal Spirit.
Down the rabbit hole
So how did it all happen? The idea behind Animal Spirits came about while we were regulars at our local underground gin bar, Two One Four, on Bermondsey Street in London.
If we were to paraphrase our conversations, they would go something like this.
Lukas: Imagine an animal menagerie at night in Victorian London, except... The animals are nowhere to be seen. You notice a faint glow of light from a hole in the ground. Follow it to the menagerie’s best-kept secret.
Eva: A speakeasy down the rabbit hole…
Lukas: It’s here where the true spirit of the animals comes alive.
Eva: You could take a sip and explore your curiosity with the Rabbit, have a cosy conversation with the Bear or learn the art of influencing from the Fox.
Lukas: We could blend our skill sets in science and storytelling and design spirits that reflect an animal’s character.
Eva: And invite people to explore those characteristics and ‘drink curiously’…
We put together a mood board of what we had in mind from references to Victorian animal characters.
Together with our partners, the Design Laboratory, Animal Spirits as a brand was born a couple of years later.
As our first product, we needed to create our very first Animal Spirit, the Rabbit Spirit – also known as the Rabbit Gin.
Capturing the Spirit
What was The Rabbit Spirit about for us? The Rabbit in our secret Victorian speakeasy oozes electrifying energy, endless curiosity and bucket loads of charm. He’s the master storyteller, the life and soul of the party, always seeking new adventures and encounters.
So how could we capture and bottle this kind of Spirit in a gin – one that goes way beyond its story?
Choosing botanicals which together expressed the personality of The Rabbit – thanks to Lukas who holds a PhD in microbiology – we set out to create an exquisitely balanced gin. We wanted the aroma, texture and taste work together in perfect harmony. We wanted to create a gin that would be genuinely exciting for the finest of gin connoisseurs.
The lab experiments
We started to build The Rabbit Gin in a simple laboratory using old-school glass distillation equipment. We knew that a good gin needed to consist of various building blocks. These are:
The alcohol to carry it forward – diluted to a minimum of 37.5%
Juniper distilled with the alcohol to form the piney ‘gin body’
Botanicals to create a unique taste in a harmony of flavours
As our first building block, we used a wheat-based spirit as it had the most neutral flavour and aroma, so that the botanicals could be used to express flavour. But this was only the start of the journey – we were yet to find the right kind of alcohol for the Rabbit Gin.
Juniper needed to be as high quality as it could have got – we wanted it to have a real kick and also ensure we source it responsibly. We used ethically sourced, FairWild-certified organic juniper from the last primeval forest in Europe, the Białowieza Forest on the border of Poland and Belarus.
When it came to creating the flavour – and the character of The Rabbit Spirit – our goal was to create the perfect balance between piney-citrusy-spicy-earthy-nutty aromas and flavours. We knew that angelica would bind all flavours together and act as the balancing glue between the botanicals, but we needed to find the right ratios between our 10 botanicals to create the perfect balance.
Bringing the Rabbit Spirit to life
After the piney aroma from our juniper, we started building out the citrusy aromas as these come first in a gin – this was also the perfect way to express the sharp freshness of The Rabbit’s character. Our citrusy aromas came from distilling orange peel, Kazbek hops and Sichuan green pepper – which also inspired us to create a sensation for the first taste of The Rabbit Spirit.
We wanted the first encounter with the Rabbit Spirit – that first sip – to feel electrifying, energetic and warming. Sichuan green pepper has these exact qualities and it’s not as strong and spicy as the red Sichuan type. It creates a tingling sensation on the tip of the tongue (feels a bit like licking batteries if anyone remembers that from their childhood?), which later opens up into a warming sensation.
Next up was building out the spiciness. We chose the fragrant cardamom with fresh, spicy citrusy notes rather than the “eucalyptus” type. The spicy cardamom becomes more earthy, herby and nutty together with the addition of our secret botanicals (natural aphrodisiacs with a proven effect in an alcohol extract) originating in Peru and Mexico, respectively).
In terms of the tasting profile, we now had citrusy, piney and spicy aromas, with the electrifying Sichuan green pepper leading to a warming sensation and opening up to a nutty, earthy layer. Adding sweetness to this mix was our next step. The very subtle sweetness from dried five flavour berries (also known as magnolia berries or Schisandra chinensis) was the perfect addition. Five flavour berries – as the name suggests – also brought hints of sourness, saltiness, hotness and bitterness to The Rabbit Gin.
Lastly, the final aromas play out between our FairWild juniper and mint, creating a long, cool and fresh finish, so that The Rabbit Spirit would leave you with a renewed sense of wonder.
Our flavour profile was complete using 10 botanicals – next we needed to create different ratios between the botanicals and dilute the gin to different % levels of abv (above 37.5%) to find the perfect expression of The Rabbit Gin.
The botanicals in the Rabbit Gin
How do you find the perfect balance between piney, citrusy, earthy, spicy and nutty aromas while expressing what we believe the Rabbit Spirit is all about?
These are the botanicals we chose and the reasons for them.
Juniper – Organic FairWild-certified juniper from the Białowieza Forest perfectly expresses and carries the ultimate piney aroma and taste throughout
Kazbek hops – Zesty Kazbek hops add a fresh, savoury and subtly spicy flavour and express the vivid and invigorating nature of the Rabbit Spirit
Orange peel – Zingy, citrusy orange and a subtle hint of bitterness express the ups and downs of the Rabbit Spirit’s appetite for adventure
Cardamom – Spicy and fragrant, cardamom adds a memorable aroma with citrusy undertones, and perfectly expresses the Rabbit Spirit’s charm
Sichuan green pepper – Tingling and electrifying, Sichuan Green Pepper creates a numbing sensation on the tongue and opens up to a warming, spicy experience
Mint – Known for menthol and its cooling qualities, we packed plenty of mint on the finish to express how the Rabbit Spirit leaves you feeling
Magnolia berries – Also known as the five-flavour berry, magnolia berries add a unique combination of salty, sweet, sour, bitter and spicy flavour for perfect balance
Angelica – Adding earthy and woody tones, angelica holds all the flavours perfectly together and is dedicated to where the Rabbit Spirit feels at home
Two secret botanicals – Adding woody and herbal notes, and widely used in natural medicine, these natural aphrodisiacs are a nod to the Rabbit Spirit’s excitable nature
From the lab to production
When it came to moving from the lab towards production, it was not our intention to carry it out by ourselves.
There is a lot of discussion in the industry about what makes a gin a ‘craft gin’ and this often comes down to the distinction between contract distilling (and working with a concentrate) versus owning a distillery (and having the final product distillate that gets bottled). Each approach has its pros and cons, of course but as a self-funded startup, we needed to be cost-effective.
For us it made sense to use professionals for distilling and trusting them to produce a gin of the highest quality. Another advantage of working with a concentrate is the possibility to scale up fast while keeping storage costs relatively low, and maintaining product consistency with every bottling.
This meant that we would avoid multiple distillations and a blending of different batches in an effort to keep the product consistent, not to mention the waste of energy for five vs one distillations.
Thames Distillers has distilled hundreds of gin brands since the 1970s and we were at the point of our journey when we knew that their knowledge would be crucial to the quality of the final product. We were testing multiple versions of the recipe and they became an extended team to help us find and fine-tune that perfect final version.
We were very lucky to have worked with master distiller Charles Maxwell at Thames Distillers and their chemist Gema Zaragoza Alvarez. Gema has worked with over 100 gin brands on creating a recipe from scratch or perfecting an existing one.
After dozens of trials (44 versions to be exact, and after nearly a year), multiple tests with Gema, testing with bartenders we admired at bars all around London, two rounds of lockdown testing with Erik Lorincz and Rasty Kasar of Kwant, we finally unlocked The Rabbit Spirit – at exactly 44% abv.
Towards the end of the testing phase, we had a very specific recipe and methodology that we needed Gema to fine-tune and replicate, so we could scale and bottle the gin. She replicated it perfectly and did a fantastic job.
We were almost at the end of the journey – and the first lockdown was in full swing – but something was still missing.
Our final decision was hinging on a final test.
Towards a luscious mouthfeel
Now that we had the recipe down and the botanicals’ ratio right, we were testing it in two final versions – distilled and mixed with a wheat-base spirit, and a premium corn-based spirit.
Why? We wanted to create something extra ‘on the top’. Corn spirit has an oilier texture and a luscious mouthfeel. As soon as we tried it, we knew it would lift the Rabbit Gin to the next level.
Together with the buttery taste and a butterscotch aroma, it complemented the spiciness of the Sichuan green pepper and cardamom beautifully.
We had the winner – we just needed it to sit for a couple of months to let the sharpness of the alcohol fade. Assuming that, we were ready to bottle our first ever Animal Spirit, officially called the Rabbit Gin.
The lockdown launch
The Rabbit Gin got bottled in September 2020, just as we were moving into the second lockdown. We sold over hundreds of bottles in pre-orders via our website and after some further delays, our customers eventually received their bottles in November 2020.
Since then, it has been awarded with Bronze in London Spirits Competition 2021 and was a finalist in the Gin Guide Awards 2021. It got featured in Vogue and tasted by Jamie Oliver who loved it. Off the Cuff Magazine called tasting it ‘the finest of G&T experiences’. We got recommended by Gin Magazine scoring 9 out 10 points in the tasting review.
Since July 2021, you can order GIN01 – The Rabbit at Two One Four, the place where we had dreamt it up four years earlier.
Creating the Rabbit Gin has been an amazing journey that has only just started. We hope you enjoy it as much as we loved creating it. You can order yours here.
Drink curiously,
Eva & Lukas
