Will the craft gin trend follow craft beers?
Although they have entered the market just a month ago, the Duh u Boci company and their Old Pilot’s Gin have won over consumers, bars, and numerous hotels in Zagreb, Split and Dubrovnik, reports Poslovni.hr on July 26, 2018.
The company was founded by two friends, Hrvoje Bušić and Tomislav Anadolac, who met at the aviation academy in Zadar. Since Bušić has been trained as a certified spirits maker in the Netherlands, they have decided to link Croatian ingredients with the passion for top-quality spirits, and have successfully launched an entrepreneurial career.
“Our first product, the Croatian craft gin, is based on six plants: juniper berries from Otočac, oranges from the Neretva valley and Dalmatian islands, olive leaves from Biokovo, sage leaves from the foot of the Velebit mountain, lavender flowers from Dalmatian islands, and angelica from the continental part of Croatia. Croatia is well-known in the world for its juniper berries, and many of the world’s gin brands are based on our berries. We buy all the plants from certified herb growers,” said Bušić and Anadolac.
They added that the goal of their business is to create premium Croatian products based on local plants, original recipes, and the cutting edge production technology. They want to offer a product that will position them at the very top of the premium alcoholic spirits market.
“Now when our products can be bought at numerous hospitality venues in Zagreb, Split, and Dubrovnik, and there is interest from abroad as well, we remain focused on creating premium products. We are expanding our initial idea to additional drinks. We are cooperating with breweries, the Faculty of Food Technology, bars and others who value a good Croatian product,” Bušić and Anadolac pointed out.
The entire production takes place at a distillery in Zagreb, from the preparation of herbs according to special recipes, distillation, filling of bottles, labelling, and sealing the bottles with wax. During production, they use modern computer-controlled technology from the Netherlands, which enables them to better utilize the time during distillation, lower production costs, and create high-end products. The branding of the bottles has been created by the Kofein agency.
“When we were launching the production, we agreed not to make compromises and copy others in the market. Majority of gin bottles are round, but we have opted for a square bottle. Also, our bottles are sealed with wax. We put labels on the bottles by hand, because there is no machine for this shape of bottles and labels. We may have created problems for ourselves, but we want to be unique,” said Bušić and Anadolac.
In addition to 0.7 and 0.2-litre bottles, they will soon start the production of 0.05-litre bottles, in order to make products suitable for hotel mini-bars and gift shops. They also plan to produce seasonal strawberry-flavoured gin for the spring and summer season, as well as tangerine-flavoured gin for the autumn and winter season.
They have also started with the test production of the first Croatian bourbon based on organic corn, and they also plan to expand to the Single Malt Whiskey production, which they say currently does not exist in the Croatian market.
Translated from Poslovni.hr (reported by Marta Duić).
