WebMayJun2019

www.westendermagazine.com | 21
If whisky isn’t your thing though,
that is not a problem, as it’s not just
whisky that has been having a
resurgence in Glasgow’s West End.
Few can have missed that gin is
having somewhat of resurgence, with
small batch distilleries and independent
companies launching their own ranges of the
botanical beverage. One such example is The
Garden Shed Drinks Company, which was set
up by rugby players Ryan Grant and Ruaridh
Jackson and their wives Kirstin and Maxine.
‘Kirstin and Ruaridh were living with us
at the time, having just moved back from
London and Ryan had paid a visit to a local
distillery,’ explains Maxine. ‘He felt inspired
and came home afterwards saying “I think
we should try and make our own gin”. We
thought it was a fun idea and got on board
with it but we had no idea we would end up
here!’
The award winning Garden Shed Gin is
a classic London dry style gin made using a
blend of 13 botanicals including home-grown
blackberries, dandelion root and lavender.
The gin is distilled following the west end
recipe at Eden Mill in St Andrews and is
available in The Good Spirits Co. shop in
Hyndland.
‘Obviously gin is in right now, so that
helps, but there are a lot of new brands doing
very interesting and quite experimental things
with their spirits and consumers are buying
less of the big name brands. People always
love finding unknown brands and introducing
them to their friends and family,’ says Maxine.
It would certainly explain the influx of
craft and small batch spirits flooding the
shelves of not just speciality shops but local
supermarkets. It seems that consumers are
becoming far more invested in understanding
where a product comes from and what
goes into it. Scotland in general has a good
reputation for its quality spirits, particularly
whisky and gin, and we’re also known for
being quite patriotic, so having a growing
number of brands and spirits we can get
behind and be proud of can only be a good
thing.