Distilling Gin in the Heart of the Jungle

Our fellow explorers over at Hendrick’s Gin have been up to some very interesting things, taking an expedition to Venezuela in search of a mysterious botanical with veteran explorer Charles Brewer Carias! Here is part four of the article series documenting the ’Hendrick’s Perilous Botanical Quest’:

Watch to see how gin is distilled in the jungle and the debut of the Venezuelan Guyana’s first ever cocktail bar with a rather extraordinary Martini serve.

As the ‘Hendrick’s Perilous Botanical Quest’ expedition team trekked through the savannahs and deep Venezuelan rainforest, the indigenous Indians pointed out botanicals that they use for food, drink and herbal medicines. Any intriguing botanicals from a day’s trek were taken back to the village for testing. Using a tiny ten-litre alembic still - a very miniature version of the beloved Bennet still used in the distillery today to make Hendrick’s Gin – Lesley Gracie extracted, distilled and assessed the selection of unusual botanicals, logging everything in her expedition diary.

Countless distillations were made, but it was one botanical in particular that captured Lesley’s senses, that of the most unusual, ‘Scorpion Tail’. Believed by natives of the jungle to be a plant with magical powers for warding away evil spirits and traditionally used in tea infusions to treat stomach complaints, Scorpion Tail has an intriguing complex deep green note that works extraordinarily well with the peculiar character of Hendrick’s Gin.

In the heart of the jungle, Lesley distilled 8.4 litres of Scorpion Tail concentrate, which she successfully transported back to Scotland in her suitcase. Since the trip, Lesley has been tinkering away with the rather exotic Scorpion Tail distillate to create a rather extraordinary tiny batch (only 560 bottles exist and it will not be available for retail) of limited edition Hendrick’s Gin, called Hendrick’s Kanaracuni – named after the village where the expedition team were based during the expedition.


In celebration of this wondrously rare liquid, Hendrick’s Gin will be inviting fans across the world from 12th May to pledge a most unusual offering to the Hendrick’s Society of the Unusual Wall of Oddities for their chance to win a trip of a lifetime to the home of Hendrick’s Gin. Unusual offerings to the wall can include anything and everything under the sun, from an impassioned ode to a cucumber to a divinely inspired painting of a haggis, and all things creative or other worldly in between – the most unusual, bizarre and delightfully bonkers the offering, the better. Upload an unusual photo, intriguing video or an exquisitely crafted piece of text – the choice is yours – just be sure to let your imagination run wild.

With an eye for the curious things in life, Lesley Gracie will judge the entries and pick the fervent individual who will journey to Scotland later this year to have their unusual offering inducted into the distillery for all eternity.

For more information on the new Hendrick’s Kanaracuni limited edition gin and to enter the Hendrick’s Perilous Botanical Quest competition, visit http://www.hendricksgin.com/perilous-botanical-quest