Craft Gin: Two Gingers Gin launches La Primavera, Spring Day 2022, South Africa

Cape Town’s Gember Distillery, which produces the TWO GINGERS craft brand of gin, launched La Primavera (Italian for spring), yesterday, Thursday, September 1, 2022 at Ginger & Lime. Technically the spring equinox in the Southern Hemisphere is around September 21/22 but September 1 is regarded by many as the start of spring. It was a wonderful way to celebrate spring, by being at the launch of La Primavera– with notes of fragrant wild jasmine and lemongrass. 

La Primavera is the 4^th release in The Two Gingers range.  The distillery operates out of premises in a business park in Muizenberg, Cape Town. Production began in January/February this year – 2022. In its 8^th month of operating, Two Gingers has released four craft gins- a remarkable feat for a craft gin start-up. They recently nabbed industry awards and have secured distribution, in Spar supermarkets, leading bottle stores and they have a substantial online presence – including a berth on takealot.com.

Two Gingers was founded by two ‘gingers’ (ginger hair), Simon Cranswick and Wynand de Vries. They consider themselves mavericks and have shown zeal in introducing their craft gins to the market and igniting consumer interest. At the launch, they were very clear in the fact that they prefer to serve their gins- unadorned – without intricate flourishes. Cranswick [CEO} quipped: “We don’t do the garnish glitter fruit salad.” He was chuffed to report that they are thrilled to have secured an export permit and can begin to get their craft gins abroad and participate in international gin festivals. They had been invited to The Liverpool Gin Festival in the UK– reportedly the largest in the word but realised that it wasn’t prudent to attend this year [December 2022], when they did not know if their export licence would come through. Now, that the licence has been certified, they are looking forward to Liverpool December 2023.

Gember Distillery is not only a great story, in this time of our liberation from lockdown (think back to where we were a year ago with masks and limits on social gatherings), but is a brilliant story about job creation. Gember “has a head count of nine people”, said Cranswick. Then there are the people that are pulled in to assist when required. There are the suppliers – bottlers, labels, design. It is big supply chain. The distillery has the capacity to produce 36 000 bottles a month.

Quality is core to the brand and so is fun and CX- customer experience, said Cranswick. At the launch of La Primavera, we were split into groups (according to the flowers on Two Ginger hats that we picked up, at random, on entry to the event). We were then asked to select botanicals and other ingredients to make a gin. While we had lunch, the components were macerated and distilled – on site – by Ross Marshall – who is also a ‘ginger’. When we left, we were each given a bottle of our bespoke gin, to take home. This kind of fun experience is on offer by Team Ginger of Gember Distillery.

✳ Featured image supplied- Wynand de Vries and Simon Cranswick- founders of Gember Distillery, Cape Town, which produces Two Gingers Craft Gin. TheCapeRobyn was hosted by Gember Distillery, at the launch of its new Two Gingers Gin, La Primavera, September 1, 2022.