A Mari Gin

AMari, like many good stories, was born over several bottles of wine. Jess Henrich grew up in Kenya and met SA born Niel du Toit at university. The pair went their separate ways for 11 years and lived and worked all over the world, before reuniting in Cape Town, in 2016 and while sitting in a small bar, ordered dinner and wine. Little did they know that this was to be a pivotal moment in both their lives. The conversation turned to work, and while Niel was an architect and Jess a copywriter, both were looking for a new challenge and Jess mentioned she had the idea for a gin brand while living on the magical island of Ibiza and Niel was intrigued. Fast forward to the end of the evening, surrounded by empty wine bottles, the pair buys their first pot-sill on the Internet, and quit their jobs the next day to start A Mari.

They decided to create something that the world hadn’t yet seen, an ocean gin. Distilled with ocean water, and coastal botanicals. The pot-still turned out to be a glorified crab boiler designed to turn anything into neat, eyewatering spirit, and the two intrepid distillers spent the next three months distilling every herb, edible shrub and exotic coastal plant they could find to come up with the recipe. This involved long hours sitting manning the temperamental pot-still, with recipe refinement over and over again, endless hours of testing, and tasting, and redoing. Driven largely by passion and determination, and very little cash, they had to learn on the go.

When they were happy with the recipe they headed out to their teacher, the grandmaster of spirits, Roger Jorgensen (who is the genius distiller behind Procera and many other gins) and ran their first batch of A Mari Atlantic Ocean.

This gin features Fynbos (wildflowers) that are indigenous to the coast of Cape Town, several types of citrus, juniper, coriander, allspice and cardamom and is fresh and leafy, juniperforward, with a delicate minerality.

That batch was completely sold out at its first event and went on to win the much-coveted IWSC silver, beating many big name brands in a huge, high calibre global competition (Hendricks Gin received the same award the previous year). Award followed award, and A Mari started taking off on the local market, picking up the Most innovative Spirit Trophy at the Michelangelo Awards Ceremony the same year. In 2018, the second gin in the A Mari portfolio was launched, A Mari Indian Ocean, which is a tribute to the Kenyan coastline and Jess’s Kenyan heritage. This gin features truly Kenyan ingredients like Swahili lime, Kenyan black tea and cardamom, as well as ajwain seed, pink peppercorns, coriander, turmeric and juniper. The gin is infused, post distillation, with a Kenyan chai masala, which is made from ginger, cloves, cardamom, cinnamon and Kenyan black tea. The flavours sing of Mombasa evenings. The world liked A Mari Indian Ocean as much, if not more, Than A Mari Atlantic Ocean, with both gins picking up 2018 IWSC Silver Outstanding medals, and Golds in the Michelangelo in 2018, followed by Double Golds in the SA Craft awards 2019.

A Mari is produced in Cape Town and proudly sold in Kenya, South Africa, Taiwan, UK, Germany, Botswana and continues to look for new markets. The aim is to have a bottle of A Mari in every single sea-facing bar in the world, ‘from ocean to ocean’ and we are calling on anyone who wants to help us achieve this challenge. Let’s celebrate where hard work and a belief in our dreams can take us.

To order A Mari contact: Under the Influence Kenya lynette@undertheinfluence.co.za 0743795276

www.amarigin.com instagram @amarioceangin facebook @amarioceangin

TASTING NOTES

With tasting notes of gentle spices such as peppercorn, ginger and cinnamon, Swahili lime and sweet ginger that all come together in a long and mellow finish, A Mari Indian Ocean gin is a true medley of distinct East African flavours. Serving suggestion: Pour over ice and top up with an Indian tonic of your preference. Garnish with a cinnamon quill and slice of orange.