This idea of community is at the heart of Cornwall’s most established gin brand, Tarquin’s. Founder Tarquin Leadbetter, a classically trained chef, was just 23 when he began distilling with his mother and sister in 2012. At the time their company, Southwestern Distillery, was the first commercial distillery to have opened in the county for more than a century. The Perrys understand their place both as part of a close-knit distilling community in Cornwall, and in their own community in Launceston. In June, as world leaders were gathering in Carbis Bay for the G7 Summit, the Eagle House Hotel hosted the Gin 7 Summit. Designed as a celebration of Cornish gins, the evening included tastings and an auction in aid of the Cornwall Blood Bikes charity. The couple have also expressed their ambition to keep distilling at the hotel, so their distillery can “serve the town”. Due in part to this dichotomy, Cornish folk and business work fiercely to both promote and defend their own. For a place that isn’t even a country, Cornwall harbours an incredible amount of national pride. And this sentiment is also ringing true for one of the county’s newest sectors: distilling. Award-winning white and rose Bruts and still wines from the vineyard near Bodmin in the Camel Valley. Caspyn Cornish dry gin is a classic dry gin. The ingredients include hibiscus, lemon & orange peel, lemon grass, lemon verbena, Japanese tea, gorse and orris to hold it all together.

Born from a love of flavour and passion for life, High Point are pushing their know-how in fermentation and distilling to bring you delicious non-alcoholic drinks. All of the botanicals are added to an organic grain spirit and left to macerate overnight. The still is switched on first thing in the morning and runs for six hours, producing a grand total of 250 bottles worth of liquid. Once off the still, the gin is cut to 40% with Cornish water and left to rest for a couple of days before bottling. Caspyn Gin to taste… In the gin I have tried to capture the Cornish spring in a bottle. Not only by using fresh and local ingredients but also by using those flavours that remind me of my childhood. That excitement of Spring, when the mornings are crisp and fresh and the winter is fading. New flavours are coming into season, new smells fill the garden. These botanicals are in addition to a traditional gin bouquet, which oddly is what comes out when Caorunn gin is tasted.Hand-crafted, small-batch Cove selection of beers from the Driftwood Spars micro brewery in St Agnes. Smooth, fresh gin, handcrafted on the north coast of Cornwall; made with organically-grown ingredients.

While Gillatt, Hillier and Warfield are building a home for their brand, Alex Palmer-Samborne, founder and distiller at Skylark Distillery, literally set up shop in his house: a converted barn near Lostwithiel, where he lives with partner Christina and dog Bentley. Caspyn Gin (both the Cornish Dry and the Midsummer) comes in the familiar “Oslo” bottle with a prescriptive paper label on the front, this dictating the batch number, date of distillation, ABV and a little detail about distillation. On the side of the label there’s a basking shark – a creature which seems to serve as something of an emblem for Cornish gins, as the snappy creatures show up on both of Tarquin’s bottle as well. Range of loose leaf and pyramid bagged teas from the Tregothnan Estate blended with the finest leaves from Assam and Darjeeling. Also herbal teas. Exceptional handcrafted artisan gin, hand-distilled with passion using wild foraged Cornish botanicals.The Bebington brothers grew up a stone’s throw from the beach in South Africa and have felt something of a tidal pull to be near the sea ever since. Cornwall was somewhere Shaun always ventured to when he needed a break from London, so when he decided to progress his gin plan, he knew that was the place to be. Caorunn gin captivated me from the first time I heard about. Exotic botanicals are nothing new in modern gin. With Big names like Bombay getting into exotic ingredients designed to invoke a certain region, it shouldn’t be surprising that a gin coming out of Scotland would attempt to do something that invokes a certain vision of the pastoral and idyllic Scottish countryside. As is common knowledge now, the very British G&T has its origins in the tropical British colonies as gin was used to mask the bitter flavour of quinine which was the only effective anti-malarial around at the time. Quinine was dissolved in carbonated water to form tonic water and voila, the gin and tonic was born.

Rowan Berry is a common wild tree in the UK. Often as small trees with bright orange-reddish berries. Quintessentially Cornish, multi-award-winning gin, handcrafted in small batches in north Cornwall. Lots of different varieties to try. There are few communities prouder of their homeland than the Cornish – and its distillers have taken this ethos to heart Award-winning, quadruple-distilled gins and vodka full of flavoursome natural botanicals. Made on The Lizard.

Juicy, hoppy, unfiltered hazy Pales, IPAs and DIPAs, made in Penryn to ethical and sustainable standards. Availability: Rather uncommon in the US. Either your local large-selection liquor store, or online.

The Midsummer Dry ginThe Midsummer gin ramps up the floral and citrus flavours with the addition of an English cucumber infusion. Whilst they say it will have a slight green tinge, I didn’t notice it and the cucumber is definitely not in your face like some cucumber gins. The taste is almost savoury – salty notes definitely come through, evoking the Cornish seaside. I think this gin would be a superb complement for a dirty martini or even a red snapper. I tried it with lemon and mint to garnish, to keep the fresh taste. Caspyn recommend serving with orange, but I think any citrus will complement the floral and citrus notes in this gin. Midsummer Dry Gin

The South West was once a profitable mining region, producing tin, copper and arsenic for trade around Britain, but this industry all but dried up in the 20th