You may remember our focus on Asian craft spirits back in Issue 47 and that China was conspicuously absent from the list. Well, no more. After a couple of years in development and a rather low-key rollout, Shanghai-based Peddlers Gin has finally officially launched in China – as evidenced by its presence at the recent East Imperial Gin Jubilee debut in Shanghai last week and being part of the launch portfolio for delivery service Bottles XO’s first foray into spirits.

Created by a group of Kiwi friends who relocated to Shanghai, Peddlers has settled on a recipe that showcases Chinese flavours through Sichuan pepper, buddha’s hand and East Asian mint, alongside traditional gin botanicals. Peddlers Gin distiller Fergus Woodward explains the journey so far.

On ingredients

Arriving at our final recipe was a matter of trial and error. There’s some awesome markets in Shanghai, so for the ingredients we can get in Shanghai and in China, we source here. That’s definitely a process: finding out what’s good quality and where it comes from. So, for example, the Sichuan pepper, one of our team went down to Chengdu and figured out the best place to get that pepper from. And so that's what we’re using in our stills.

It was the same with Buddha’s Hand. It doesn’t grow best here in Shanghai but, we had to figure out where it's good in China and find a reliable supplier for it. And likewise, sometimes the climate in China is not so great for other things. So we tried juniper from a bunch of places, but settled on using Hungarian juniper.

We feel that creates the best gin. Procurement is definitely an issue. That was an obstacle, a bit of a challenge, but it was a lot of fun figuring out what’s good. That was a massive step for us. It took us a long time to figure the recipe. We played around with a lot of stuff, which we liked in raw form, but it doesn’t always necessarily translate into a gin that tastes cohesive.

On branding

So after recipe development that we put a lot of work into, we thought about our branding. As a company, we want to be able to represent Shanghai and China to a high quality, and have it be trendy. We worked with a lot of local and international designers to help us get that, to help us figure out that, get that on point, how we can incorporate the things that we are all into about Shanghai and China. We spoke to a lot of local musicians and artists and photographers on the way that we can incorporate that, the way we present ourselves, I guess.

The branding took quite a while. We ended up doing that in conjunction with the recipe development. Probably about a year for the branding and design, just to get it in the space that we wanted. I think that’s important, particularly in craft spirits. There was also a really cool opportunity. There are not many, if any, craft spirits coming out of Shanghai and China, so a cool opportunity to be able to present China and Shanghai and Chinese products in a new light.

On paperwork

In any place, with alcohol production, there are always requirements you need to get through. A lot of it in China, we found, was just figuring out what they are. We were lucky to have contacts already in the alcohol industry who could point us toward what might and what might not work. We had a number of unsuccessful leads, which, looking back, you’d say, “Shit, I’d do that differently. I’d approach from a totally different angle,” but you never really know that until you have done it. Persistence, I think was the next big step.

To get it in a spot where we could manufacture with the QS and meet all the requirements was probably eight months of researching, and that involved a lot of hands-on work, talking to the right people and the right partners and figuring out arrangements that worked for everyone. In New Zealand it’s a really simple process. Very small manufacturers can set-up their own shop. But it’s a bit different in China.

We did all of our recipe development, creation and trials in Shanghai. We’ve got equipment here, which we work on. That’s where we craft everything. And then we’ve got a partner in Shandong that we work with. We’re hands on, we do absolutely everything, in terms of production, overseeing them actually making it. We’ve got some cool equipment out there which is certified and licensed, and part of an operation that can attract the QS. We were in Anhui before. That was a cool spot but one of the dead ends that we’ve put on pause for the moment.

On production

We make up to 500 bottles a batch. We’ve got a copper plate still that we use to distill small volumes and that means that we can have strong quality control over the ingredients – and that’s about the extent that we want to be making per batch. In terms of total sales volume, it's still pretty low. We’re really new, we’re not shifting heaps of product but hopefully getting better with getting the QS…

None of us are millionaires. We make a batch every couple of months probably, maybe less. As a brand, we’re pretty ambitious and certainly want to grow in Shanghai and China. A part of what I really like about the brand story is that I think globally, people are going to recognise that China has some really high quality stuff that’s pretty trendy, like Japan has done amazing things with whisky, so has Taiwan, and I think China is in a really cool spot to do something similar with other products.

You know, it may not be us, but some other people doing some cool stuff, but I can certainly see that as an opportunity. And with where craft spirits are going at the moment, having a point of difference with a Chinese product coming from Shanghai is important. Shanghai’s an awesome city, I think there’s quite a big opportunity there but, yeah, small steps. We’ve still not got any bottles out in New Zealand though.

You can currently find Peddlers Gin at a number of bars in Shanghai and from Bottles XO. Find out more at peddlersgin.com.

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