Lussa Gin

While thousands of you are voting in our 2020 Consumer Choice Awards, we’re looking back at the top 10 gins you voted for last year and sharing a bit of information about what makes them special. In this feature, we take a look at Lussa Gin, that came in at number 9 in the poll.

The Lussa team are a very adventurous all-female crew. Georgina, Claire and Alicia are all neighbours, living at the north end of the Isle of Jura, which is a 2-ferry journey from mainland Scotland.

They are all plant-lovers and several years back, they were trying to find opportunities for work on the island, but, with a population of only 200 people suitable jobs weren’t forthcoming, so in the end, they decided to create their own.

That’s how, in 2015, they started experimenting with a 10-litre still called ‘Jim’ and set about exploring the island and the surrounding waters for botanicals to use in their new gin. The trio even ventures out in a small boat to gather the sea lettuce for the recipe. As they say on their website, they’re not just gin-lovers, they’re adventurers!

It’s this dedication to sourcing and hand-foraging botanicals that are local to Jura that makes Lussa really special. The team either grow and gather the ingredients themselves, or they have a few neighbours on the island growing for them.

The gin is then distilled and bottled on Jura and since launch, has received an excellent reception -gathering a string of awards, including a bronze medal at the prestigious International Wine and Spirits Competition and is now on sale all over Scotland and beyond.

We asked them what they’re looking forward to this year and their thoughts on being placed in the top 10 gins, voted for by the public:

2020 will be a busy year – we’re hoping to consolidate our growth over the last couple of years and continue to reach new customers. We’re increasing production and exploring markets outside of the UK, along with looking to find new ways of communicating our brand.

Personally we’re very excited as we’re going to be building a dedicated gin garden for visitors to our distillery at the north end of Jura to showcase the botanicals we’re growing for our gin. Plans are underway and we’re looking forward to getting our hands dirty.

It was a real surprise to be voted in the Top 10 – we’re small and very remote and don’t have the marketing budgets like the big guns – and a poll like this goes a very long way to help us communicate that we’re here and why we’re special.

Don’t miss out on your chance to vote for your favourite Scottish Gin in our 2020 Consumer Choice Awards here.