How to make a great gin
You need to find the purest water source possible. For Alex, this search led him to the glacial spring in Peru's rugged Cordillera Blanca. Not content with securing his water supply, he also installed a pipe to a local couple's hut who in return, presented him with 30 kilograms of potatoes. It's not your average transaction, but this is not your average gin.

A pot still called Endeavour
Combining Peruvian and British spirit traditions - Alex created a London Dry gin made on a base of Quebranta grapes, which have been used to produce the iconic Peruvian spirit pisco for centuries."I started tinkering as a hobby and was initially using cachaca, a distilled spirit made with boiled down cane juice," says Alex. Then I started working with grapes. I was helping out friends with a harvest and they gave me around 40 kilograms of grapes, so I made my own pisco."

Having adopted a 400-litre Portuguese copper pot still called Endeavour, Alex started working on different pisco, base spirit and gin distillations."I knew I wanted to make a London Dry gin, but why would you make a really good pisco and then get rid of all those fruity, floral notes?" Finally, he came up with a flavour profile he was happy with. By bringing forward the juniper and balancing the pisco with botanicals, London to Lima's first spirit - Glacier Adventure - was born.

Journeys of Discovery
Having to import the juniper and three other botanicals - the adventurous pair headed to Tuscany, Italy. The search for the very rare botanical orris proved challenging but with the help of Karena's language skills they were able to approach locals to source. It was the same story back in Lima, with Alex embarking on a hunt for coriander. "I knew it grew in Peru, but didn't know where to find a reliable source. I went around the city's curry houses and eventually met the owner of an Indian restaurant. Now I buy from his provider." Alex explains. The gin also contains the immune system booster groundcherry and pink peppercorns - a spice that they didn't need to travel far for at all, with a massive pink peppercorn tree behind the distillery.

To achieve the gin's citrus - forward flavours, Alex looked for fruits that represented classic peruvian flavours - Limon sutil and valencia orange. The final ingredient is water - demineralised, deionised and straight from the stunning Peruvian Mountains.

You can purchase this truly delicious and unique gin here https://ginsociety.com/product/london-to-lima-gin/