A businesswoman’s spirit of innovation has created a Courier Country marriage made not in heaven but the great outdoors of Angus and Fife.
In what is believed to be a Scottish first, Kim Cameron-Gall’s taste of adventure looks like making her the toast of gin fans after releasing a chilli-infused tipple on to a drinks market with a taste for something out of the ordinary.
Kim’s Gin Bothy business based in the Angus glens has gone from strength to strength with the release of a range of flavoured gins using local produce including raspberry, blueberry and rhubarb.
But the innovative addition of chillies from Fife has put a kick into the family line-up.
“We’ve been trying to introduce gin into food pairings that’s a real trend at the moment and it’s worked really well with all of our other gins, but they are all sweet,” said Kim.
“I bought a chilli plant from Chillilicious in Fife and wondered if it would work as a pairing, so we infused our gin with it, put it out to the Gin Club Scotland and it definitely seemed to work for them.
“It’s turned out to be a fantastic pairing, and something different.”
Kim distils her own gin at a local distillery and batches are infused at the Peel Farm bothy business near Lintrathen Loch.
The addition of a bright red chilli to the latest bottles will be a talking point for drinkers and could become the Angus company’s equivalent of the worm in the tequila bottle after the first batch proper hits the shelves early next month.
Kim is passionate about the produce on the Gin Bothy’s doorstep and maximising the potential offered by the forage calendar.
“I was recently in Tuscany with Go Rural to look at what they do and the emphasis there is local foraged fruits and foods, working with real people and real produce. With everything we have here there is no reason why we cannot be the same,” she said.
Gin Bothy also won new fans at the inaugural weekend Forfar Brewfest which offered 500 people at the sell-out event the chance to taste the products of independent brewers and distillers from Angus and beyond.
“We have our own harvest celebration night market coming up at Peel farm on October 29 and drinks bloggers are loving our family, especially our mulled gin, so it is all very busy,” said Kim.