The rise in the popularity of gin in the UK in the past fifteen years has been extraordinary to behold. Practically every month now, new gins seem to appear on supermarket shelves. Not only does this mean that the plethora of gins makes it harder than ever for consumers to choose which gins to buy, but it means that producers often need to do something particularly remarkable to stand out from the crowd. Brothers Callum and Peter Sim from Aberdeenshire in Scotland, although primarily whisky drinkers, also always enjoyed a good G&T, but felt that most lacked the discernible characteristics of a longer finish, flavour profile and smoothness they experience in malt whisky.
Following their trip to visit all the distilleries on the Scottish island of Islay in 2017, they established Raven Spirits Ltd. to create their own premium gins under the brand name HRAFN (pronounced ‘ra-vn’, meaning ‘Raven’ in Old Norse). The name was inspired both by Callum’s long held interest in Norse mythology and the fact that, after seeing a raven perched outside the Still House at one of the distilleries gazing at the brothers, they considered it a talisman for the journey they were about to take. In developing HRAFN GIN, Callum and Peter have approached it through the lens of a whisky drinker, resulting in their focus on the distillation process to achieve these whisky-like characteristics to enhance the gin drinking experience.
‘Although whisky-boys at heart, we appreciate a quality balanced and flavoursome gin’ explains Callum, whose previous career was as a lawyer in the oil and gas industry, ‘and, for us, there has always been a disparity between the balance and smoothness of whisky versus gin. I’m sure many gin drinkers have experienced gins that, when tasted, have little or no finish, or gins that just tasted ‘ginny’, rather than having distinct botanics’ flavours you could pick out across the flavour profile like whiskies do. When on our Islay trip, we discussed what characteristics we would want to underpin the quality for our gins. We both agreed it would be depth of flavour, length of finish, and the smoothness of the spirit itself, which are natural characteristics of whisky. As a test of the spirit’s quality, we wanted a gin that could readily be enjoyed neat, over ice or even with a drop of water. Essentially just like a malt whisky but, perhaps, with a garnish of lemon peel! That’s how it all began.’