FOOD+DRINK
L-R, Andy, Kim & Norman
KENT’S FIRST ARTISAN MICRO GIN DISTILLERY
ANNO DISTILLERS
A small artisanal spirits producer based in the spectacular Kentish countryside, Anno Distillers is
certainly proud to call The Garden of England its home. For it is here that Patience, Anno Distiller's
stunning copper-pot still, works its magic and transforms carefully selected natural ingredients,
into premium spirits for your drinking pleasure.
Anno Distillers, Kent’s first micro-distillery and
the first to distil gin in the county for over 200
years, has opened its doors this spring in a bid
to offer tours and tastings to the public.
The Marden-based distillery has been selling
their super-premium handcrafted gin to the public
since October last year, and it’s going down a
treat. Combining an artisanal blend of local
Kentish botanicals, with scientific expertise, these
gin geniuses have successfully created Anno
Kent Dry Gin, 'The Spirit of Alchemy', and by
doing so, they have brought back the art of gin
distillation to the county of Kent – an industry
that has not been active here since the
Georgian era.
Established back in 2011, Anno Distillers is the
brainchild of Dr Andrew Reason and Dr Norman
Lewis, two PhD research and development
chemists, who chose to take early retirement
from the pharmaceutical industry when their site
near Hildenborough was closed. Having worked
with one another for over 10 years, this dedicated
duo – fuelled by their technical background in
science and love for quality spirits – used this
opportunity to follow their dreams and embark
on their new venture.
Also within the company is Kim Reason, a master
of science, biology graduate, and Andy’s
youngest daughter. Kim heads up the sales,
marketing and social media side of the business.
Meanwhile, pride of place in the distillery is
Patience, Anno's beautiful and uniquely designed
300-litre copper-pot still. It is in fact distillery
tradition to name the still after a lady, and in this
case, Patience was chosen as Anno believes it
sufficiently reflects the long journey the company
endured, from the time it was formed in 2011,
to the tail-end of last year, when the final product
hit the shelves across Kent and London.
Although the lengthy wait proved to be a source
of frustration for all, Andy explains: "It gave us
plenty of time to carry out development work on
our small still, and so allowed us to perfect the
recipe we wanted.
Anno ‘A’ is an ancient alchemical symbol that
describes the process of distillation, while the
name Anno is constructed from the first two
letters of the founders' Christian names.
In order to tantalise the taste buds with the
flavours of Kent, Anno Kent Dry Gin uses a range
of Kentish botanicals, including a blend of sweet
aromatic hops, lavender from the award-winning
Downderry Nursery, rose hips, elderflower, and
samphire from the Romney Marsh area. Of
course, it also contains traditional gin botanicals,
including juniper, coriander, angelica and cass XK