Tarquins Cornish Gin & Free Copa Glass
One 23 year-old, a classically trained chef from the Cordon Bleu in Paris, somehow finds himself sat behind a grey desk in the city of London. He quickly realises this environment is at odds to what really makes him tick and he serves his notice. He starts to scheme. One idea surfaces, then another, then more. Each building in ambition and each driven by the same guiding principle - the passion to create.
He hones his thinking. One idea takes a hold and quickly becomes an all-encompassing vision. Tarquin, supported by the business acumen and drive of his sister Athene, sets his sights on establishing the first Cornish distillery for over 100 years. Armed with a 0.7 ltr copper pot still, a suitcase stuffed with botanicals weird and wonderful, and a prized surfboard, Tarquin makes his return to the West Country.
TAMARA, SENARA & TRESSA
To this day, these stills continue to be fired by direct naked flame and are sealed at the joints with bread dough. These distilling techniques are about as old-school as you can find.
Alongside these original copper pot-stills proudly sits the newest addition to the distillery, FERARRA – a state of the art, one-of-a-kind 500 litre copper still. Championing a combination of the progressively modern and the authentically traditional Tarquin uses these four stills collectively to create his internationally award-winning spirits.
When it’s time to create the flagship Tarquin’s Cornish Dry Gin, 11 of the botanicals are added to our stills (with the exception of the violets) and left to macerate overnight in a wheat based neutral grain spirit.
In the morning Tarquin’s simply add the missing violets, to complete the botanical recipe, and then it’s time to fire up the stills.
As the stills heat up Tarquin is constantly monitoring the process, nosing and tasting as the distilled spirit as it comes off the still at different temperatures. They collect only the purest ‘heart of the distillation’ (achieved when the still has reached the magic temperature of 78’c), collecting and setting aside the ‘heads’ and ‘tails’ cuts (the first and last parts of the distillation) that don’t make the most selective taste and texture grade.
Post distillation, this ‘hearts cut’ (around 76% abv neat Gin) is cut with de-mineralized Cornish spring water to bring it down to the desired 42% abv. Nothing else is added in true London Dry Gin style.
Every single bottle is then individually hand-filled, hand-labelled, dipped into a slow-cooker filled with paraffin wax, stamped with our Puffin logo, given batch tasting notes and then individually hand-signed.
We truly believe in the value of maximising the human-touch at every stage of the process.
NO SHORT-CUTS ~ NO OUT-SOURCING ~ NO COMPROMISE
When Tarquin puts “Handcrafted in Cornwall” on every bottle, he really does mean it.
