Crayfish Gin

Berkshire’s Kennet Crayfish has just launched a unique craft gin using crayfish claw shells and botanicals. And Gin lovers can help to protect the waters and wildlife of Britain’s rare chalk stream, the Kennet, one of only 200 in the world.

Kennet Crayfish Company is the UK’s largest fully licensed plant for processing wild caught American signal crayfish. The best crayfish are prepared and chilled for food distribution while the smaller crayfish are used for other products including animal feed for zoos. The season for these wild caught crayfish is from June to October. Cooked and chilled crayfish are available for delivery from 1^st June.

Crayfish Gin is the result of a collaboration between The Kennet Crayfish Company, one of the finalists in the Food Producer of the Year in this year’s prestigious BBC Food and Farming Awards and the award-winning Hawkridge Distillers.

Andrew Leech, MD of Kennet Crayfish Company, said:

“We’re proud of our quality crayfish product; however, I felt that there were opportunities for us to develop exciting and tasty products from the humble crayfish shells leftover after extracting the meat. Mad as a gin sounded, Phil Howarth, managing director of Hawkridge Distillers, agreed and thought that a crayfish gin could be winner, and we are delighted with the Kennet gin product.”

Carolyn Bennett, CMO Kennet Crayfish Company, who is coordinating the gin project commented:

“If it takes an original story and original flavour to stand out in the craft gin market, then Kennet’s Crayfish gin hits all the right notes. Signal crayfish, the ones we eat, are an invasive species imported from America in the 1970s. Unfortunately, they escaped into the wild and proliferated so successfully that they are now found in huge numbers across British waterways and pose a real threat to river wildlife.”

The River Kennet flows 45 miles through Wiltshire and Berkshire. Rising at Swallow Head Spring, near Silbury Hill in Wiltshire, it joins the River Thames at Reading. Much of the river is in the North Wessex Downs Area of Outstanding Natural Beauty.

Daniel Defoe wrote of The Kennet in his ‘A Tour Thro’ the Whole Island of Great Britain’ (1724-27), “the river is famous for crayfish, which they help travellers to at Newbury; but they seldom want for price.”

Bennett added:

“As a licensed crayfish company, we are proud to be a sustainable food producer helping to protect Britain’s waterways. By fishing this invasive species, we are helping to keep their numbers down while producing a premium delicious food product. We wanted to feature this aspect of our operation and have incorporated a ‘tails of the riverbank’ illustration by Sophie Jonas-Hill, a British award-winning artist and illustrator into our label design. From the outset we wanted to create a premium craft gin that not only intrigued but also would delight the gin connoisseur and everyone who tastes it just loves it.”

As well as tonic. Kennet’ s wild caught crayfish and the gin make for a magical pairing of food and drink. For instance, chilled crayfish tails with a selection of dips such as dill and red onion sauce, beetroot and mint and wild garlic and pesto mayonnaise. Forthcoming launches include crayfish butters and a crayfish bisque.

Bennett concludes:

“England crayfish are no longer available to be sold live legally. Our specially built traps are hand pulled from the rivers. Processing through our cutting edge technology is what helps make our crayfish the finest quality from river to plate. The flowing nutrient-rich waters of a Kennet tributary give our crayfish a sweeter, delicate more delicious flavour than crayfish found in lakes or farms. Making our crayfish the finest quality from river to plate.”

And now glass.

Crayfish fishing, purging and processing is a long tradition. But it has taken a while to make a good crayfish G&T.

Have it on the rocks.

The Kennet Crayfish gin can be purchased directly on the company’s website and is available in two sizes: a small taster 5cl bottle at £6.50 and a full-size 70cl bottle priced at £40.00.

Author Bio:

Kevin Pilley is a former professional cricketer and chief staff writer of PUNCH magazine. His humour, travel, food and drink work appear worldwide, and he has been published in over 800 titles.

Photographs courtesy of The Kennet Crayfish Company