Sunshine Coast Botanical Garden and Bruinwood Estate Distillery have teamed up to create Botanical Garden Gin. The recipe began as a proposal by Bruinwood to create a gin unique to the Botanical Garden, and to offer the limited release (only 100 bottles) as a fundraiser for the Garden.
Experimenting with plants and flavours from the Garden, Bruinwood distilled a gin that captures the “essence of the Sunshine Coast and its Botanical Garden,” says distiller Jeff Barringer.
Planning the recipe’s flavours began in March with Bruinwood distillers Barringer and Danise Lofstrom touring the Botanical Garden’s native plants with the Garden’s specialist, Harry Hill. Their tour included a nibble of such ingredients as licorice fern root, sweet gale sprouts, the new branch tips of several conifers, as well as culinary herbs from the Garden’s vegetable garden and beekeepers’ demonstration garden.
The chosen plants were harvested in late spring, the botanicals brewed, the gin distilled, and the two balanced very carefully for final distillation and bottling. The final touch – a specially designed, exquisite floral label.
Botanical Garden Gin is available from Bruinwood’s tasting room at 2040 Porter Rd. in Roberts Creek, or at various farmers’ markets on the Coast. Half the price of each bottle will be donated to the Sunshine Coast Botanical Garden.
The Sunshine Coast Botanical Garden is now open to the public by donation at 5941 Mason Rd., Sechelt, Friday through Tuesday from 11 a.m. to 4 p.m. With beautiful gardens, a picnic area, and kilometres of level paths under forest, by ponds, and through meadows, it is an ideal place for families, seniors, and anyone seeking a safe place to refresh and reconnect with the natural world. Annual membership is very reasonable and allows an unlimited number of visits each year, plus many other benefits. Visit www.coastbotanicalgarden.org for further information.
– Submitted by Paddy Wales
