Don’t panic but the future of our gin might be in danger

The continued rise of gin, our collective favourite beverage and the so-called secret to a long life, has been one of the few good things about 2016 (even though liking it means you might be a psychopath). But now even that is in jeopardy, because 2016 is awful.

Our gin renaissance is under threat, according to The Times, from a combination of bad weather in the Balkans (where we get our juniper berries) and really poor currency post-Brexit. Look, I know the poor juniper berry harvest isn’t something the average person would care about, but bear with me: a poor harvest and a cool summer in Serbia (and Macedonia) means gin distillers are desperately searching for supplies.

This has meant the price of our beloved gin fruits have soared – one distiller paid £8,000 per tonne last month. I don’t know much about the prices of juniper berries per tonne, but it was £5,000 two years ago.

Demand is higher than ever for gin in Britain. The number of producers has risen by over 100 in the past five years. And the juniper-berry-disaster-zone has been made worse by the sharp decline in the value of sterling after Brexit. Most of the other ingredients involved in making gin (including angelica, orris root and dried citrus peel) are sourced from Europe. Great.

Michael Haughton, an importer, told The Times that in terms of the precarious gin-situation, 2016 was “unusual and severe”. But I mean we all knew that about 2016 anyway.

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