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A Playground of Delicious Discovery

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This springtime, step inside Fortnum's, and discover a destination that's good enough to eat, as we take you on a tasting tour of some of our favourite flavours, ingredients and culinary creations. Welcome to Fortnum & Mason, and prepare to experience our Playground of Delicious Discovery ...

A History of Gin at Fortnum's

Our history with gin is long and delicious: you need to travel all the way back to 1849 to find the first mention of the word 'gin' in the Fortnum's archives, when we sold our first 'Cordial Gin' and imported Dutch Gin by the gallon. Yes, gallon.

With American cocktails growing in popularity, we began to sell larger quantities of gin around the time of First World War, and by the 1950s, we were offering complex and mouthwatering gin cocktails of our own at the 'Spanish Bar', just off Jermyn Street.

For the next few decades, gin was viewed as more of a 'middle-aged' spirit, before enjoying a renaissance of sorts from the start of the 2000s, when a younger generation of distiller arrived, taking gin into new and exciting areas.

Speaking of which, 2023 marked our own entry into the world of distilling, with the opening of Amalthea, our in-house gin distillery, on the 3rd floor of our flagship Piccadilly store. Bottoms up.

Made in Piccadilly

You won’t find another gin quite like this one. Crafted at our very own in-house copper still, Amalthea, this delicious pink gin is made using the traditional ‘Single Shot’ method – meaning all botanical ingredients and our rare British Apple Spirit are distilled together in a single distillation. The British Apple Spirit base is unique to our in-house gins, which is distilled in Yorkshire from British apples, a much more sustainable crop than the grains normally used in gin base spirits.

Made from a blend of rhubarb and delicate rose essence, our pink gin boasts a robust juniper profile, staying faithful to its namesake. It offers improved sustainability through minimal waste and small batch production, as well as using spent botanicals to cure salmon, venison and more.

  It's thirsty work, crafting gin, but our dedication to this exceptional spirit doesn't stop there. In fact, we're always thinking of new ways to enjoy this glorious stuff... get Gin The Mood.