What made you decide to create One Gin?
One has a vision of a world where everyone has access to safe clean water, forever. With it's heritage in bottled water, One has raised over £15 million to date, changing the lives of over 3 million people. But there are still 663 million people in the world without access to clean water and this needs to change. As a brand, One has a target to raise £20 million by 2020 and One Gin has been launched as part of that journey. Just like our water and soft drinks, every bottle of One Gin funds life-changing water projects around the world. How did you get from the idea to the finished product? With no experience in the spirits market other than a personal penchant for a G&T, we needed to partner with experts in order to realise our vision: a British gin inspired by the world, for the world. Working closely with Kate O'Neil at Liquor to Lips, we met with a number of distillers before selecting Sarah Thompson, award-winning master distiller at Blackdown Distillery, as our production partner. In creating One Gin, we wanted to reflect One's global mission and reinforce the difference that a small change - such as your choice of gin - can make on the other side of the world. Just as chaos theory suggests that a tiny flutter of a butterfly's wing can trigger a cyclone on the other side of the world, every bottle One Gin funds life-changing water projects in the world's poorest communities. We also worked closely with World Duty Free, a long time supporter of One Water, who offered to launch One Gin in a 1 litre bottle in their stores in time for World Water Day - March 22nd, 2017 What's the distillery like and can you tell us about the distillation process? One Gin is distilled at Blackdown Distillery in the foothills of Blackdown Hill in South Downs National Park, West Sussex. Sarah at Blackdown takes great pride in using only the finest botanicals, many foraged from the surrounding woodland. One Gin has a 100% British Wheat base and uses a double distillation - 9 core botanicals in a London Dry style, distilled in a copper alembic still, blended with a separate distillation of fresh sage foraged from the grounds of the distillery. What is the cause that One supports? Over 2 million people die each year from waterborne diseases, and lack of safe water means families are forced to spend up to 4 hours a day collecting water at the expense of attending school and working to build their livelihoods. A minimum of 10% of our net profit is donated to The One Foundation (UK Registered Charity No.1118810) to fund water projects. The projects, focusing on Kenya, Rwanda, Malawi and Ghana, take a holistic approach to ending water poverty. As well as drilling new boreholes, constructing wells and repairing faulty water pumps, they also train communities in water point maintenance and good hygiene practices to make sure they have access to clean and safe water forever. How would you describe One Gin in 3 words? Savoury. Distinctive. Meaningful. What makes your One Gin different? It is a hugely versatile gin; One Gin is unique both in flavour profile and brand story. Plus choosing One Gin will help change lives. What's your favourite way to drink your gin? It's delicious served neat or simply on the rocks. But we think it's just perfect poured over ice with Peter Spanton's No.9 Cardamom Tonic, garnished with fresh apple slices and sage leaves. What are your favourite gins (other than One Gin of course!)? Kew Gin (a collaboration between Dodds Gin and Kew Gardens), Berry Bros No.3 Gin, and Blackdown Sussex Dry Gin, which uses Silver Birch and so is super smooth. What's next for One Gin - any exciting plans? We want One Gin to be famous for it's sage gin, both at home and abroad - and for the cause it supports. We have plans to launch additional expressions, maintaining the 9 core botanical base, but varying the +1 signature botanical. Comments are closed.
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