Jindea Gin Partners With Nimbility To Make Its Debut in APAC

Jindea Gin, a unique craft gin created using a single estate Indian Darjeeling tea, is joining forces with Nimbility to build their markets across APAC.

Jindea Single Estate Tea Gin is the collaboration between three industry professionals whose collective CV encompasses all facets of the drinks business from bartenders to bar operator to spirits merchant and brand ambassador.

Two of the collective, Matthew Dakers and Adrian Gomes, have strong ties to India, Matthew’s great-grandfather serving as a Captain in the Indian Army, and Adrian’s father growing up in Goa, where the family worked the Indian railways, including the renowned narrow-gauge ‘toy trains’ that continue to serve the hill stations. Jack Rackham, who completes the collective, works at Emporia Brands, a drinks importer and spirits merchant business that has been in the family for three generations.

With the premium gin market booming, but also highly competitive, in places like the UK, Germany, France and Poland, Jindea has set its sights on venturing further afield teaming up with market and brand building experts Nimbility to expand their reach into core Asia-Pacific markets such as China, Singapore, Australia and Japan.

 “Jindea is excited to be expanding into the APAC markets!” says Founding Partner Matthew Dakers. “Ever since I travelled there as a global ambassador in 2015 I was able to get a taste for the bar and restaurant culture. I was so impressed with the passion and attitude of the industry. I was also blown away by the hospitality I was given! Jindea has tea as one of the main botanicals and the APAC market is the home of tea! It’s natural to be involved. I can’t wait for the opportunity to travel and return again to a part of the world that took my breathe away!”

With tea at its heart as its signature botanical, Jindea, has a natural connection to Asia. Ajit Madan, co-founder of Camellia’s Tea House in London and UK’s first certified ITEI Master Tea Sommelier, introduced the brand owners to ‘Exotic Thunder’, a first flush Darjeeling tea from Goomtee Estate, a single estate plantation in the Serene Kurseong Valley, long-considered the ‘grand cru’ of Darjeeling. The high altitude and artisanal cultivation yields arguably one of the finest black teas in the world.

Darjeeling tea imparts aromas of muscatel grape and stone fruits. It is known as the ‘Champagne of Teas’ and the picturesque artisan tea gardens of Darjeeling, at the foot of the Himalayas, produce less than 1% of India’s total tea production. This is mostly from single estates and often organic and hand-plucked. Darjeeling is black tea and produces four harvests throughout the year, known as ‘flushes’. The first flush is the Spring picking which produces the gentlest of black teas. This and the second flush are the most desirable and it’s the first flush that Jindea have selected to impart gentle qualities to their gin.

Jindea Single Estate Tea Gin is produced in a traditional alembic copper pot still to a classic London Dry recipe containing 10 natural and ethically sourced botanicals. The botanicals are macerated in a neutral grain-based alcohol for 3-5 days before undergoing a single pot distillation, resulting in gin distillate of around 71% abv. From this distillate water is added to obtain Jindea Gin at 40%. The key botanicals are juniper, first flush Darjeeling tea, grapefruit, coriander, ginger, fennel, cardamom, cinnamon and angelica, giving Jindea wonderful complexity, freshness and spice.

Indian inspired cocktails as well as a number classics are Jindea’s signatures including:

GIMLET

50ml Jindea Gin

10ml Gabriel Boudier Kaffir Lime Leaf liqueur

Stir all ingredients with ice. Strain into a Champagne Saucer and garnish with a dried Kaffir Lime leaf or a Bay leaf.

BRAMBLE

35ml Jindea Gin

15ml Bramble liqueur

1tsp caster sugar

Add gin, lemon juice and sugar to an old-fashioned tumbled with crushed ice, churning to dissolve sugar whilst marrying the ingredients. Top off with more crushed ice, then drizzle the liqueur around the edges. Garnish with fresh blackberry and sage leaf.

CHAI PANI

40ml Jindea Gin

10ml Campari Bitter

1tsp mango chutney

15ml fresh lemon.

Shake all the ingredients with ice. Fine-strain into a Champagne Saucer and garnish with a poppadum shard.

THE CALCUTTA CLUB

40ml Jindea Gin

10ml dry Vermouth

15ml fresh lemon

1tsp of sugar syrup

Shake all ingredients with ice and fine-strain into a Champagne Saucer and garnish with a fresh mint leaf.

WEST BENGAL PUNCH

40ml Jindea Gin

10ml Crème de Pêche

30ml cold-brew Darjeeling Tea

1tsp caster sugar

Shake all ingredients with ice in an old fashioned tumbler, fine-train over a large block of cut ice and serve with sprig of mint and a slice of fresh peach.

“Jindea is highly innovative, but at the same time a rooted proposition for the APAC gin markets, tea being the beverage of preference all over Asia for centuries, with so many varieties and ways of drinking it, as well as production regions, and Darjeeling being the pinnacle of these,”says Manuel Arce, Nimbility’s Director of Spirits. “Jindea not only uses the finest Darjeeling as botanical, but as a link to the culture of tea across Asia pacific, we are excited to bring this new proposition into the APAC markets, that will for sure appreciate all the intricate nuances of the finest tea leaves in this highly unique gin.”

For more information on Jindea Gin in APAC please contact info@nimbilityasia.com