Aquine, Lidl's own-brand Scottish gin, has been created and distilled using pure Scottish water, representing the legendary myth that the unicorn’s horn can purify tainted waters.
Competitively priced at £19.99, Aquine is a handcrafted Scottish dry gin based on an exclusive recipe that has been crafted and distilled by The Glasgow Distillery in a deal worth £500,000.
Using eight carefully selected botanicals – orange peel, lemon peel, juniper, coriander seed, angelica root, rosehip, liquorice and bramble – Aquine is full-bodied with a fruity finish.
The gin is packaged in an eye-catching bottle, adorned by with a mystical unicorn.
The name Aquine is a blend of the words Aqua and Equine, alluding to the original recipe and the legend of the Scottish unicorn.
Lidl's Head of Buying in Scotland, Paul McQuade, said: “Following our successful inaugural Scottish Gin Festival earlier this year, and with the continued demand and interest in Scottish craft gin, creating our own Scottish Craft Gin Aquine is a natural next step.
"The Glasgow Distillery has an outstanding reputation within the Scottish gin market, producing their own top-quality premium range, and is therefore the perfect partner to team up with on this exclusive product.”
Mike Hayward, Brand and Marketing Director, and Co-Founder of The Glasgow Distillery said: “We are delighted to be collaborating with Lidl to create this bespoke handcrafted gin for them.
"We have been working with the supermarket for the past few months to perfect the unique taste of Aquine and are proud to bring the essence of the Scottish landscape to customers across the whole country.”
Aquine is now available in all Scottish Lidl stores priced at £19.99, and will form part of Lidl’s permanent gin range in Scotland.
Aquine will also be showcased as part of the British Gin Festival at the start of November, allowing customers across the UK the opportunity to try it.
Lidl's own brand gin, Aquine Gin. Picture: Julie Howden
The inaugural Lidl Gin Festival went exceptionally well, and so we wanted to create a Scottish gin which customers could try all year round to solidify this commitment to local gin innovation. Aquine gin uses the flavours and influences of our natural landscape, and shows the fantastic results of collaborating with local suppliers to produce interesting, high-quality products for our customers, at unbeatable value.
Our gin sales across the UK are up 40% year on year, which demonstrates the interest in Lidl gin across the nation.
Shoppers are interested in the provenance of food and drink, and year on year they are buying more products which are locally sourced or made. With Scottish gin accounting for 70% of the UK's overall gin production, we have a fantastic provenance story to tell behind the bottle, and this resonates with our customers who seek a unique taste of Scotland.
We have teamed up with The Glasgow Distillery, based in Hillington in Glasgow, to create our first own-brand Scottish craft gin. The Glasgow Distillery Company has an excellent reputation in producing premium artisan gin and was a natural fit for us. We have worked with the team at the Distillery on a number of recent projects including our inaugural Gin Festival earlier this year, with brilliant results.
Our recommended Perfect Pour for Aquine is to pour a 25ml measure of Aquine into a Copa glass with lots of ice, top it up with a premium Lidl Indian tonic and garnish with a fresh slice of spiralised orange peel, to bring out the botanicals in the gin.
