Why We Peel, Chop, and Macerate While Others Just Pour

If you’ve ever wondered why our gin tastes like actual fruit rather than a chemistry set having a funny turn, here’s the answer: we do it the hard way.

At Hawkins Distillery, we peel, chop, crush, soak and graft our way through every batch because that’s how you get proper flavour. Not “close enough” flavour. Not “that’ll do” flavour. Proper flavour.

Plenty of big outfits go for the easy option. Pour in a ready-made essence, give it a stir, stick a fancy label on it, job done. Quick? Aye. Convenient? Sure. But it’s not the same, and your taste buds know it.

We’d rather spend the time with sticky hands, piles of peel, and fruit flying about the distillery than cut corners. We’re Actually Made in Sheffield, after all. Around here, making things properly still means something.

Real Fruit. Real Work. Real Flavour.

Take our Blood Orange Gin. Those blood oranges don’t peel themselves. We’re in there by hand, taking off the good bit and leaving behind the bitter pith, because the difference matters. That peel carries the bright, punchy citrus oils that make the gin sing rather than sulk.

Same story with pears. For Pear Gin, the fruit gets chopped down so the spirit can get right into it during maceration. It’s not glamorous work. Nobody’s writing songs about chopping pears in a distillery. But it’s what gives the finished gin that rounded, juicy, proper-fruit character.

The Bit the Big Boys Like to Skip

Once the fruit’s prepped, we don’t just wave it vaguely near the tank and hope for the best. We macerate it. That means soaking the real ingredients in spirit and giving the flavour time to come out naturally.

That’s where the magic lives. Not in a plastic bottle of “natural flavouring.” In the hours spent letting the spirit pull oils, aromas and all the lovely little details out of the fruit itself.

The industrial shortcut is much simpler: pour in an essence, stir it about, and move on. Fast, cheap, tidy. Also flatter than a week-old pint. You might get a loud top note, but you miss all the depth underneath. That’s why some flavoured spirits taste bold for half a second and then vanish into a weird artificial aftertaste.

We’re not after loud. We’re after layered.

Why Real Fruit Wins Every Time

When you use whole fruit and proper botanicals, you get more than one big obvious flavour note. You get all the little bits that make something taste rounded, balanced and, well, real.

Here’s the short version:

• Real fruit gives depth. Not just one shouty note, but layers that stick around.
• Proper maceration gives body. It tastes full, not thin and sharp.
• Natural ingredients leave a clean finish. No weird metallic tang. No “what’s that then?” aftertaste.
• The flavour hangs together better. Because it’s come from the fruit itself, not a flavour lab in a bottle.

That’s the difference between biting into a ripe pear and licking a pear-scented air freshener. Technically both are “pear-ish.” Only one belongs anywhere near a glass.

Made Properly, Not Quickly

That same approach runs through the whole range.

4Ships Navy Strength Gin

This one’s 100% vapour infused. No crushed berries. No heavy-handed bashing about. Just proper flavour lifted gently through the vapour, which is why it drinks ridiculously smooth for a Navy Strength gin. Still bold at 57% ABV, mind. It’s Sheffield, not soft play.

Sloe Gin

Here’s where we happily ignore the “that’s how it’s always been done” crowd. Instead of waiting months and months for sloes to get moving, we use a Soxhlet extractor. It’s lightning-fast by comparison, so we can pull out that deep, rich flavour in a couple of days rather than hanging about for a season. Same proper character. Less thumb-twiddling.

BerrySloe Gin

Sloe berries still get the respect they deserve, and the result is big fruit character and rich natural colour without chucking in dyes or any other daft nonsense.

Toffee Vodka

And because we don’t like doing things the easy way, we make the toffee ourselves from scratch too. Proper toffee. Made by us. Then worked into the vodka so it tastes like the real thing, not like somebody waved a caramel-scented candle over the tank.

Actually Made in Sheffield Means Exactly That

This isn’t just branding fluff we’ve slapped on because it looks nice on a label. We’re proudly part of the Actually Made In scheme, which means what we make is genuinely made here in Sheffield.

Not dreamed up in one place, mixed in another, and labelled somewhere else. Made here. By us. Since 2019.

That matters because Sheffield has always had a reputation for making things properly. Solidly. Skillfully. With a bit of graft behind them. We like to think our bottles belong in that tradition, just with a touch more juniper and a lot less stainless steel cutlery.

And yes, doing things this way takes longer.

• Manual peeling time: about 4 hours per batch
• Shortcut infusion time: about 0.2 hours per batch
• Our verdict: if it saves time but costs flavour, it’s a rotten deal

The Hawkins Way

Our process is hardly mysterious. It’s just more hands-on than the factory version.

1. Start with proper ingredients

Whole fruit. Real botanicals. Nothing fake. Nothing pre-chewed by a lab.

2. Do the graft

Peel it. Chop it. Prep it properly. Make the toffee from scratch when that’s what the bottle calls for. Do it right so the spirit can pull out the good stuff.

3. Give it time

Usually, flavour needs patience. Sometimes, like with our Sloe Gin, it needs the right kit and a bit of know-how. That’s where the Soxhlet extractor earns its keep, pulling out deep flavour in days instead of months.

4. Distil with care

We keep an eye on the cut, keep the clean heart of the run, and leave the rough bits where they belong.

5. Finish with honesty

No artificial additives. No weird sweeteners to fake body. No pretending.

You Can Taste the Difference

Using real fruit means you get the fruit’s natural sugars, acids and oils coming through in the final spirit. That’s why our gins taste rounded and believable rather than loud and one-dimensional.

It also means you might spot the odd bit of natural sediment now and then. That’s not a fault. That’s a little reminder that something real went into the bottle.

Signs you’re drinking the proper stuff:

• Look: Natural colour and the occasional sediment from real fruit oils
• Smell: More than one note hitting your nose
• Taste: A proper balance of tartness, sweetness and depth

In Short

We use real ingredients. We put the work in. We let flavour take its time. We make it here in Sheffield. And we don’t fill our spirits with artificial muck just to make life easier.

Could we do it the quick way? Probably.

Will we? Not a chance.