Bullards evoking seaside vibes in new Coastal Gin

English gin maker Bullards is bringing a taste of the seaside to its range with its new Coastal Gin.

In homage to the spirit maker’s home county, the new gin features a cast of botanicals foraged from the Norfolk coast including sea purslane, marsh samphire and sea aster. These ingredients are combined with orange and lemon peel for a gin that Bullards says “subtly reminds you of the salty freshness of a walk beside the sea”.

To make the gin, master distiller Jake Wilson steeps the botanicals for 12 hours with a neutral grain spirit in a 400-litre copper column still. Like Bullards’ other spirits, it’s produced in small batches at the distiller’s home: the grade two-listed Crystal House in central Norwich.

Gins with a coastal, saline edge are becoming increasingly popular among producers; Edinburgh Gin’s Seaside Gin, Lincolnshire’s Coastal Distillery gin and Curio’s Cornish Wild Coast Gin all evoke the salinity of the sea, while fellow Norwich brand Gyre & Gimble’s Callooh Callay Gin also uses a variety of local coastal plants in its botanical mix.

The new release comes as Bullards unveils a packaging innovation in a bid to shrink its environmental footprint: refill pouches. The distiller has created the pouches in partnership with Terracycle in line with its ‘Bottle for Life’ concept, to help reduce the amount of packaging waste both the distillery and its customers produce, and help it towards its goal of being a zero-waste operation by 2022. 

Customers can opt to purchase a ‘Bottle for Life’ of any Bullards gin – London Dry, Strawberry and Black Pepper, Old Tom, and Coastal – and any subsequent orders of that gin will be sent in a refill pouch, with distinct designs for each spirit. Each pouch can also be sent back to the distillery by Freepost for recycling.

Russell Evans, founder of Bullards Spirits, said: “As much as we love our bottles, we love our planet more and the eco-refill pouches help us keep to our sustainability pledge.”