Little Bird Gin

London Dry Gin

Be the first to review

Vegan Gin

Imagination

Often the best ideas develop when least expected and Little Bird Gin is no exception. Food, laughter and cocktails brought a group of good friends together one night in Peckham Rye, the neighbourhood in London where we live. Not wishing to idealize the evening but this gathering underpins the entire Little Bird story.

Perhaps we should explain that gin has always captured our imagination.  It’s been our passion and  tipple of choice – long before it began its much talked about renaissance. We had explored, tasted, sipped and supped – meandering our merry way through the gin that was available at the time. Chatter around the table turned to what an adventure it would be to craft our own gin …and a spark of an idea became a flame and an idea was born.

Our minds were buzzing with ideas for blends and botanicals. Our gin would be distinctive and handcrafted in micro-btaches batches in London, using just 10 botanicals. Furthermore we would be a London Dry style, meaning no artificial flavourings, colours or sweeteners are allowed before or after distillation – a little detail that we feel very strongly about and Vegan too!

Our imaginations, excitement and enthusiasm carried us through and into the next few months and with the help and belief of some very willing friends and neighbours, we tasted and tested various recipes and tweaks – over 40 in total – until we reached the perfect balance of citrus with a smooth finish. Little Bird’s unique blend of pink grapefruit, sweet orange peel and ginger brings crisp citrus noteswhilst 7 more botanicals add to our smooth, fresh flavour.

MISS GINGER

A design was needed for our new gin that would be memorable but most importantly original. We asked a designer friend for her help. Our brief was simple, we wanted something that would capture our love of all things vintage. We immediately feel in love with the old school glamour and vintage vibe of our newly designed label.  The little bird tattoo on our vintage-cladd mascot is where we took our name from….Little Bird Gin.

We were inspired by the work of artist Alberto Vargas who in the 1940’s began painting pin-up girls, known as ‘Vargas Girls’, for Esquire Magazine. Pin-ups were used as a form of aircraft graffiti and these colourful paintings were draped over the nose and sides of airplanes. Often referred to as nose-art, they were painted to inspire and motivate, whilst also bringing good luck. Miss Ginger was illustrated for the same reasons, bringing her unique nostalgic style to our #independentspirit.

How we like it

EARLY BIRD

30ml Little Bird
20ml Cointreau
50ml Pink Grapefruit Juice
2 large bar-spoons Seville orange marmalade

Muddle the marmalade in a shaker, add lots of ice and the ingredients. Shake well and double strain into a chilled martini glass. Garnish with a twist of pink grapefruit peel.

PECK’EM Martini

25ml Little Bird
20ml Aperol
15ml Cinzano Bianco
50ml Pink Grapefruit Juice
3 wrists of Grapefruit Bitters

Pour the ingredients into a shaker filled with ice, shake well and double strain into a chilled martini glass. Garnish with a twist of pink grapefruit peel.

THE PERFECT G&T

50ml Little Bird
Fever-Tree Mediterranean Tonic

Place a pink grapefruit wheel into a rocks glass and fill with ice. Pour a generous helping of Little Bird and top with Fever-Tree.

RHUBARB ROBIN NEGRONI

25ml Little Bird
25ml Campari
25ml Sweet Vermouth
3 wrists of Rhubarb Bitters

Add the ingredients to a short rocks glass filled with ice, stir with love. Twist a sliver of pink grapefruit peel over the top outer side down to release the oils, a light touch around the rim and pop it in.