Sometimes, these dark and stormy nights call for dark and stormy drinks – and no, we’re not talkin’ about that plebeian lime-rum-soda-variety. In one small step for them, and one giant leap for gin-kind – the fellows over at the Never Never Distillery Co have teamed up with Sydney’s top cocktail purveyors at Maybe Sammy to create a buzzing new beeswax and olive gin that we can easily imagine sipping in the ornate window of a dark castle whilst wearing a red velvet dress.
This gin is the twelfth iteration of Never Never’s so called dark series collaboration, with this collection getting a moody name in the booze world for its use of bold flavours and unbridled innovation. And when something like this comes from Australia’s best bar, you kinda need to sit up and take notice.
This latest beeswax and olive number is made from the friendship between Never Never’s co-founder Sean Baxter and Maybe Sammy’s co-founder, Stefano Catino, melding Stefano’s Italian heritage with Sean’s regional Australiana gin roots. This drink incorporates the beeswax of some of the world’s last remaining pure Ligurian bees, from the world’s oldest bee colony on Kangaroo Island. These bees once existed for thousands of years in Stefano’s hometown of Vernazza in Italy’s Liguria region, but have since disappeared, leaving this tiny colony in South Australia as the last one standing.
By combining this particularly caramel-y beeswax with olive brine from Lloyd Brother’s Olives (which is located around the corner from the Never Never’s distillery in McLaren Vale), the folks over at Never Never and Maybe Sammy have created a delectable drink that marries Stefano’s identity as an Italian-Australian with Sean’s Aussie gin-making, by also making a bev that is rich with the complex flavours of salted honey, olive oil, pine needles, punchy brine, sweet basil and fresh orange.
Sydneysiders – you will be able to taste this wild ride exclusively at Maybe Sammy for the next few months in one of their masterful cocktails – but for everyone else, you can snag a bottle of the dark stuff through Never Never’s website when it goes live on July 17.