Black Tomato Gin is the world’s first gin made from black tomatoes. Born in Bruinisse, a small fisherman village in the Netherlands, this gin was conceived by master distiller Meindert Kampen. It uses small drops of fresh salt water and homegrown black tomatoes to create an intense gin of “rich, sweet and dynamic flavour.”

To make the gin, the tomatoes are plucked from the bushes and smashed with neutral spirit. The liquid is then filtered and distilled. Juniper and the secret botanical are also processed as separate distillates, and the three spirits are combined before the purified salt water is added. This concentrate is stretched with grain alcohol, then cut down to 42.3% ABV with purified water.

The packaging

The box is a real selling point of this gin. It’s incredibly well conceived and looks like a premium whisky instead.

To “reveal the mystery” (as the box states) you lift up the lid to reveal the smooth and sleek black body of the bottle. It’s all very reminiscent of a cool craft gin and yet you have to question just how exciting can a fruit you pick up at the supermarket actually be?

Black Tomato Gin does a great job of adding intrigue and class to their product but for some it may come across overly pretentious instead.

The taste

There’s no getting round the fact that this is a pretty weird flavour combination.

You feel you could practically reach out and pick the tomatoes growing in this bottle; the freshness is for sure interesting. That’s if you can get over the thought of tasting tomatoes in your gin.