Located close to the Essex/Suffolk border, the first distillery in Colchester since the early 19th century began life as a chat among friends in local alehouse. Noticing that small distilleries had popped up across the country, questions were asked as to why Colchester, the oldest recorded town in England wasn't home to one of them. The town used to house the biggest Gin Distillery in the UK back in the early 1800's so this is where the journey begun. Development began in earnest in 2017 when our licenses were granted, and production commenced. Numerous botanical's were tried in various quantities with some shall we say interesting results. The first run produced an awful gin, a bottle which has been kept to this day as a reminder to try, try and try again until you get it right. It was during this time that blind gin tastings were held, and a few well-known brands mixed among the test batches. Feedback was very promising, so the recipe was fine-tuned, trialed again and since the autumn of 2018 it has been the recipe that we have stuck with. With the top-quality botanical's sourced, and the finest East Anglian Grain used as our base the first new gin produced in the town for over 100 years was born. The finished product is a true artisan offering, Jumbo Gin is produced in small batches in one of two 30 litre copper stills. It is then labelled and sealed in wax by hand before being boxed up and sent to many local restaurants, bars and hotels.