Distilled in Africa, this craft spirit is singular in the vast category of gin. Now, Tatler Unlisted is offering readers the opportunity to make it even more unique
Cast your eye across the bottle selection in any self-respecting bar, and more often than not, your gaze will settle on a curious outlier: squat, with an elongated, leather-bound neck ending in an oversized palm wood stopper, and devoid of any label or marking save for a blue dot daubed on its imperfectly handblown glass body.
Like an artifact preserved from a pre-industrial time, Procera Gin's delightfully uncommon appearance speaks to its equally singular provenance—as the only craft gin to emerge from Kenya, the clear elixir captures the unique terroir of the East African country's pristine Kijabe highland forest.
Procera Gin is named after Juniperus Procera, a native variety of juniper (the essential botanical that makes gin, gin) that only grows above altitudes of 1,500 metres. Unlike your run-of-the-mill workhorse gin, which utilises dried Juniper Communis bought in bulk from a commodities broker, the local juniper berry is picked while still green and macerated without the drying process to impart an earthy complexity to the spirit.
This is complemented by nine other African botanicals: pixie orange and Swahili lime from Kenya, Somalian acacia honey, cardamom and mace from Zanzibar, Madagascan pink peppercorn, Moroccan coriander and orris root, and Selim pepper from the Ivory Coast. The end result is a rich nuttiness that carries through the nose and palate, with a lingering peppery finish—an intoxicating medley of flavours that has won Procera Gin a gold medal at the 2019 San Francisco World Spirits Competition and Gin Trophy Winner of the Michelangelo International Wine & Spirits Awards.