Cape Byron Distillery’s flagship Brookie’s Byron Dry Gin and the can’t-stop-at-one Brookie’s Byron Slow Gin, both well-regarded for their native DNA, were awarded prestigious gold medals after being judged against more than 2200 international spirits in the 2018 San Francisco World Spirit Competition – the largest number of entries ever seen in the competition’s 18-year history. So, what’s the deal with Brookie’s? Well, in late 2016, Eddie Brook, the son of Pam and Martin Brook – the founders of popular muesli and health-food brand Brookfarm – ran a successful crowd-funding campaign through Pozible to launch Brookie’s Gin to the market.

The first release was the Dry Gin, a botanically infused drop featuring 26 native Australian ingredients – 18 of which are native to the distillery’s own rainforest in the Byron Bay hinterland, including Brookfarm’s own macadamias (hence the oily and buttery mouth-feel). Then in mid-2017, Eddie and the team embraced local Davidson plums to create and launch Brookie’s Slow Gin. Now, just months after, both of Cape Byron Distillery’s delicious native drops have been named as the best of the best, catapulting Australian-made gins onto the world stage. Keen to taste some gold-medal gin? Jump online to find out where Brookie’s is pouring – or better yet, go and explore the rainforest and join Eddie on a distillery tour. Cheers to that!