Many new gin makers, like Jin Jiji in India, celebrate different tea regions in their bottlings. Photo credit: Jin Jiji
A recent media report from the UK revealed that gin and tonic has overtaken tea as Britain’s favorite drink. The report follows a survey conducted as part of the sixth annual Bacardi Cocktail Trends Report, which indicated that 44% of Britons opt for a gin and tonic when meeting friends, outranking tea, preferred by 41%.
Gin sales have been rising in the UK while tea is dropping, with top brands like Yorkshire Tea and PG Tips recording depressed sales. Last month, the 120-year-old Typhoo Tea hit its lowest business point. Market analysts are not bullish about future tea sales either. If the tea industry wants more sales, a new generation must be enthused about tea. The survey also indicated that nearly half the Gen Z respondents (18-29 years) prefer a cocktail for a social celebration over beer and wine.
However, in an interesting twist on these experiences, gin and tea have an affinity. In the last two decades, even as gin makers have proliferated and started innovating with flavors, they’ve sought tea as a botanical that works well with gin. A pioneer in this direction was Beefeater Gin, owned by Pernod Ricard. In the early 2000s, Master Distiller Desmond Payne created the Beefeater 24 with Japanese sencha and Chinese green tea. He was inspired to use tea while traveling in Japan and had his aha moment when he paired gin with chilled green tea. The world of gin was discovering tea’s role as a botanical.
Today, tea is greatly sought after by gin makers. It offers a range of choices, and for craft gin, tea’s artisanal slant and provenance add a desired heft. Indian craft gin brands have truly embraced tea, some acknowledging the tea and terroir directly, like Nilgiris by Amrut Distilleries and Darjeeling by Jin Jiji (uses an FTGFOP1 black tea from the Jungpana tea estate). Others on the list are Cherrapunji by Raincheck Earth, which includes Assam tea. Samsara Vale of Paradise by Spaceman Spirits includes the Kashmiri Kahwa tea, and Jaisalmer by Radico Khaitan includes a Darjeeling green tea.
Japanese craft gin brewers are the other set experimenting with tea like the Ki No Tea by Kyoto Distilleries, created in collaboration with tea grower and blender Hori-Shichimeien. The family tea farm in Uji, Kyoto, is over 100 years old, and its tencha and gyokuro are among the 11 botanicals used in this gin. As described in the catalog, the tea adds notes of white chocolate and lightly roasted biscuit during distillation.
In the USA, Guilder’s Gin was started by Wan Di and James Park, who decided to combine their shared love for tea and gin to create a tea gin brand. They use fine Chinese teas to make their Red Oolong Gin and Green Tea Gin.
The gin market is growing, and gin and tonic is set to push to the top of preferred beverages for Britons in 2025. This bodes well for gin, and if the two products can grow together, there will be a positive effect on tea as well.