The Tavistock gin shop where lightning strikes twice

A few weeks back, our Gin Scouts Bill and Lesley returned from the beautiful market town of Tavistock (famous for its Goosey Fair) looking victorious – they’d found us a new gin to try – called Ginny’s Gin – which went into the fridge for a later date as I was alcohol-free for some medical treatment.

And this tipple was a real treat for me after being dry for what felt like a month, an oasis in a bottle.  So, intending to blog about it, I went hunting for its story online, but could only come up with an American gin bearing the same name.  Hubby did a check too, but like me, he kept being led to the shop where our Scouts made the purchase – the Boutique Gin Shack, which stocks over 100 locally made gins.  So, he impulsively decided to give the shop a ring to get some info first hand.

Bill and Lesley, however, had trundled back over the moor the same afternoon to buy their favourite Bungay Butter, and popped into the Boutique Gin Shack again less than an hour later to ask the owner, Melanie for some details about the gin’s botanicals on behalf of their gin blogger friends, who’d enjoyed the first taste of Ginny’s Tavistock Dry Gin so much.  Her face must’ve been a picture, as the responded: “Does his name happen to be  Bruce?”  which wouldn’t have happened if their website hadn’t been down while moving to a new host. Bruce had come away with some useful insights from his call and Mel got to share a chuckle with our tenacious scouts about what a small world it is at times.

Apparently, Ginny’s Gin is the brand set up through a local distillery by Mel and husband, Paul Candy, who very much regard the Southwest of England as their ‘spirit-ual’ home and decided that their shop would support locally distilled Artisan Gins “from Bristol, all the way down to the Isles of Scilly.”

Mel added: “I was born in Bristol, but my mum loved touring around the southwest as much as she enjoyed a gin and tonic, though back 25 years ago there wasn’t much apart from Gordon’s and Beefeater to choose from. Sadly we lost her to breast cancer and decided to produce a gin to honour her.  It is small batch where we produce 60 bottles of the clear one, and 40 bottles of the blush from every run.”

Thanks to the business contacts of a regular customer, they were able to send a bottle up to the tasters at Bacardi to get their opinion, who gave Mel and Paul very positive feedback – and also suggested they should produce the blush version, which includes Asian Goji Berries as well as raspberries – Mel’s mum’s favourites.

Meanwhile, Ginny’s Tavistock Dry Gin, at 42^%, comprises a dry spirit, which is intentionally heavy on the juniper and also contains four different types of citruses, and a little bit of basil to keep it smooth: plus, pink peppercorn and other spices for warmth.  We enjoyed ours with Indian tonic and lime; very refreshing.  Plus, there is the affable thought that, out of the proceeds from Ginny’s Gins, the Boutique Gin Shack donates to Breast Cancer Research every year, keeping the matriarch’s memory alive in a respectful way which benefits many more sufferers.

Ginny’s can be purchased for around £45.