Food Drink

Prohibition Liquor Co launches mouth-watering gin to celebrate Pride

Cheers to this. There’s a new gin in town, and it’s a doozy.

Prohibition Liquor Co, in collaboration with Box Bar, is launching a brand new gin to celebrate its position as an ally of the LGBTIQ+ community just in time for Pride.

The Adelaide-based craft spirits company will launch The Spirit of Pride Gin in time for the Sydney WorldPride 2023 festival, being held from February 17 to March 5.

The unique flavour starts with wormwood, a banned substance in prohibition era, better known for creating absinthe. This with a tinge of ruby red grapefruit & blood orange delivers a fresh citrus edge, taking juniper, coriander and ginger root on a journey away from the standard.

Enter stage left, Australian native lemon myrtle (yellow) and subtle notes of green tea, vanilla and lavender to soften the finish and draw out flavour depth on the palate. The result is a sophisticated, deep flavour with a fresh citrus note and warm peppery finish.

The Spirit of Pride is a delicate and contemporary Australian Dry gin that comes in one of Prohibition’s signature glass bottles with a shiny, rainbow-foiled label.

The bottle features a striking image of the activists who marched in protests as part of the first Mardi Gras on 24 June 1978. The activists, who were commemorating the Stonewall riot held in New York in 1969, became known as the 78ers and went on to take part in the subsequent protests that followed the first Mardi Gras.

A percentage of the revenue from the gin will be donated to the Forcibly Displaced People Network (FDPN), the first LGBTIQ+ refugee-led organisation in Australia.

Prohibition and Box Bar want to support FDPN as it is still unsafe and illegal to be an LGBTIQ+ person in more than 70 countries. For many the only way to survive is to seek safety in Australia. FDPN supports LGBTIQ+ displaced people to find a home in Australia.

Box Bar Chief Experience Officer, James Harvey-Fiander, who also runs popular Sydney gin bar, The Fox Hole and is a proud member of the LGBTIQ+ community, has worked with Prohibition on numerous projects but this one, he said, was his proudest.

“I’ve barely put the bottle down and have been showing everyone,” James said.

He said it was important that The Spirit of Pride Gin talked authentically about the history of the LGBTIQ+ community, which is why it was important to reference the 78ers.

“In 1978 it was not just taboo but illegal (to be gay),” James said. “These people were marching with police standing in front of them.”

Prohibition co-founder Adam Carpenter said the image, taken by Branco Gaica, was chosen to acknowledge the 78ers for the significant part they played in helping improve the way of life for the LGBTIQ+ community.

“We felt it was important to tell the story of the 78ers and the part they played in paving the way for the progress which has been made in the past 45 years, since that first Mardi Gras” he said.

The Spirit of Pride Gin retails for $99 and is available here. You can also grab it from the Prohibition Tasting Room in Adelaide.

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