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Recently I was invited by the lovely Ellie from Maccoms to visit Cooper King for a tour of their distillery to see how they produce their award-winning craft Yorkshire Gin.
For those of you that regularly follow me on social media, you'll know that I'm a huge advocate for living a balanced life, I'm all for a cheeky drink and love gin so I jumped at the chance to sample some new drinks that I've not tried before.
If you're not aware of Cooper King, they are a couple of Yorkshire entrepreneurs who set up an independent gin and whiskey distillery in the beautiful village of Sutton-on-the-forest near the city of York in North Yorkshire in 2016. Chris and his partner Abbie self-built the distillery after being inspired when visiting whiskey distilleries in Tasmania.
Cooper king pride themselves on sustainability and power their distillery using 100% green energy. They grow their honey, lemongrass and lavender while sourcing great quality local botanicals for their award-winning Gin. They are the first distillery in Yorkshire using innovative cold vacuum distillation and hot copper pot distillation to ensure they extract maximum flavour for their spirits.
The company is also the first distillery in Europe to join the 1% for the planet initiative which sees at least 1% of all their sales from their dry gin go towards environmental non-profits. They are partnered with the Yorkshire Dales Millenium trust who plant trees and woodland in the Yorkshire dales so every time a bottle of gin is sold, a new tree is planted, these guys really care about the environment so they share a lot of the same values as we do here at Voltage Sport.
On the day of my visit in late September, the sun was shining and the temperature was good, literally a perfect day to enjoy a G&T outside. I was part of a group of 6 excited bloggers who couldn't wait to see what Cooper King had to offer. We arrived at the distillery and after a quick meet and greet with Chris we started the tour of the distillery, during the tour Chris shared the story of Cooper King and talked us through the processes they use to create their Gin and Whiskey. It was fascinating to learn how these spirits are made, I will certainly appreciate my drinks more knowing how much love and care goes into creating them.
Once the tour was over we headed into Cooper Kings's beautiful garden to sample all the different drinks they produce, this was the perfect end to our tour, sitting in the sunshine with a drink in hand! We tried CK's original dry gin, herb gin, smokey & spicy gin (a collaboration with a local restaurant) berry & basil gin liquor and their new make spirit which is an un-aged whisky. They were all absolutely delicious with the strong flavours dancing around my palate. If I had to choose a favourite I would go for the herb gin but honestly, I'd highly recommend them all.
With that, my day at Cooper King was over, we said our goodbyes to Chris and headed home with a newfound appreciation for this amazing Yorkshire gin. I can't wait to try their first batch of whiskey which is ageing as I write this, due to be released in 2024, a treat to look forward to I'm sure!
Have you tried Cooper King? Let me know your thoughts below.
