Small craft distilleries in Southeast Asia are turning to gin, as well as promoting local spirits to a world-wide audience, reports Conde Nast Traveler.
Due to the amount of creative freedom that is allowed in gin after checking juniper-led, neutral spirt base and a minimum of 37.5% ABV off the list, Southeast Asian distillers are using local botanical ingredients.
For example, Sông Cái’s dry gin uses 16 wild handpicked fruits, seeds, leaves, flowers, and wood picked from the northern Highlands of Vietnam.
In the Philippines, Proclamation Gin use the country’s national flower, the sampaguita, with its the fragrant white buds hand-picked by women farmers in the Central Luzon region. “Anyone who grew up in the Philippines would remember seeing sampaguita garlands…,” says co-founder Cheryl Tiu.
And in Bali – a very surprising place for a vineyard – grappa is being distilled at Sababay Winery.
