According to Mintel some 6.5million Great British consumers choose spirits and cocktails to accompany eating occasions. In the spirit of Christmas Food & Drink Wales have chosen 2 Welsh spirits, one of which being Dà Mhìle, to make the festive season extra special and to kick start a Visit Wales Year Of The Sea Campaign 2018.
Dà Mhìle Seaweed Gin 42% ABV – from £6
The Dà Mhìle Distillery commissioned the world’s first organic whisky in 1992. Since then, they have expanded and they make a variety of organic spirits and liqueurs. This Seaweed Gin was launched on St David’s Day in 2014 and was designed to complement seafood and is infused with handpicked seaweed from the Celtic coast, giving it a lovely light green hue before being triple filtered and bottled. On the nose it’s very refreshing with a strong whoosh of lavender and citrus with notes of eucalyptus and pine.
About Dà Mhìle
Our mission is to produce only top quality spirits at an honest price. We started distilling in the autumn of 2012 at Glynhynod Farm in Ceredigion but our story starts many years before that.
Way back in 1992 John Savage-Onstwedder, one of the founders of the renowned Teifi Farmhouse Cheese and an organic farmer, commissioned the world famous Springbank Distillery in Campbeltown, Scotland to produce the world’s first organic whisky of the modern era to commemorate the eagerly anticipated new millennium. Dà Mhìle (pronounced da-vee-lay) is Gaelic for 2000.
Springbank made 15 hogsheads (barrels) out of the 11 tonnes of organic barley John delivered to the distillery, of these 15 hogsheads five remain. They celebrated their 23nd birthday in the summer of 2015 and are now highly sought after by collectors.
Visit: www.damhile.co.uk/shop/p/seaweed-gin
Pirate Rum 35% ABV – £33 | 70cl
This rum is made with handpicked laver seaweed, affectionately known as ‘Welshman’s caviar,’ which is put into a giant tea bag and infused with a Caribbean un-aged rum blend. Lemon, orange, vanilla, clove, ginger and cinnamon is added to produce heavy spiced, citrus dark seaweed rum. www.bartirum.wales this new rum is stocked in around 50 delis and independent beer shops in Wales and is served in roughly 100 bars in the country.
