You can now drink Crofters’ Tears.

“Crofts are still are in our genes, so it was inevitable we’d make our own gin and rum. Many crofters in Caithness supplemented their croft income with illicit whisky,” Stephen Wright, of the Ice & Fire Distillery, observes. 

The distillery is located just outside the small village of Latheronwheel.

Master joiner Wright found some juniper berries while rock climbing. He decided to give gin-making a go and the local Forse & District Climbing Club were more than willing guinea pigs. After extensive trials, they gave Crofters’ Tears Highland Gin their approval and the green light. 

In response to the COVID-19 pandemic, the micro-distillery has now become the UK’s most northerly producer of hand sanitiser, distributed free to local surgeries, shops and care workers.

Black wanted to do something for the local medical staff. He was diagnosed with a rare, untreatable cancer and owes the local doctors, hospital and medical staff a debt of gratitude and this is his way of thanking them.

Awards of over £9,000 have been made by the SSE Beatrice Caithness Fund and the E.ON Camster Community which has given the remote distillery funds to begin large-scale production of the sanitiser. 

The money went into the purchase of 4,000 litres of denatured alcohol and other necessary ingredients needed to kick off the process.  The sanitiser is produced according to WHO (World Health Organisation) guidelines.

Ice and Fire director Jacqueline Black remarked: “The fact that we can supply hand sanitiser for up to the next 12 months is going to be such a benefit to the local community.  COVID-19 is not going away any time soon, so I think that using hand sanitiser is going to be a part of daily life, and the ability to give it to people free is fantastic.”

Black works in the nuclear industry as well.

Ice and Fire Distillery started making the product in early March from duty-paid ethanol after being approached by a local medical practice.  Due to the cost of using spirit alcohol, it was costing £300 to make 10 litres of hand sanitiser. 

Ice and Fire’s name comes from the northern lights or aurora borealis which we frequently see outside our house up here

 Black adds: “Without the financial aid and support from the local panel of the Beatrice Wind-Farm Fund, this project would not have been possible.”

Planning permission has been given for Scotland’s most northerly whisky distillery run by Derek and Kerry Campbell.

The area has a long association with distilling. The former local hotel – now a B&B – is known as The Blends.

In the 1890s, landlord Donald Sutherland, blended his own whisky. Many ‘worms’, a part of the distilling equipment, and ‘bothies’, underground hide-outs in the moors where distillers would hide from the ‘gaugers’ (excise men), have been unearthed.

Ice and Fire was launched around Christmas 2016 when Iain, Jacqueline’s brother, was diagnosed with neuro-endocrine tumours.  

His sister Jacqueline remarks: “A year later, we made a decision as a family to launch a new venture that would fit around Iain’s needs rather than the other way round. We have big aspirations for the company, and we’ve bought a 25-acre croft and house to facilitate future expansion including building a bigger distillery, a restaurant and a visitor’s centre.” 

Their other sister, Elizabeth, is also involved in the venture.

“Ice and Fire’s name comes from the northern lights or aurora borealis which we frequently see outside our house up here.  That is why there is the video of Caithness skies on the front page of our website.”

The distillery, launched in July 2018, started out on tiny alembic stoves heated on an AGA cooker. Now, a Galician Hoga pot-bellied still called Monty is used. Ingredients include rhubarb, Jacobean roses and, of course, heather tips which are freshly picked in July and August.

Crofters’ Tears comes in a purple-heather embossed bottle. The heather is blended with fresh lime and orange peel in a juniper-led base of botanicals.  Its makers say it’s best served with Fever Tree tonic and a fresh bramble berry.

Wright says: “Our gin is a truly crofting garden gin with two hero signature ingredients from our croft ‒ rhubarb and salmonberries which are similar to wild raspberries.  The label represents the mountains of Morven and Scaraben, the crofthouse and the Wade bridge at Latheronwheel.

“The stag harks back to our heritage.  Our master distiller Iain has been a gamekeeper all of his life besides being a crofter, a gamekeeper, a tree surgeon, a fencer and a lamber.”

Also involved are gin collectors Lorna and Brian Cormack who turned their marine fish tank room into a gin room. Their day jobs are also in the nuclear industry. 

They also produce a rum, Caithness Raiders Rum, which is lighter in body and more delicate than traditional dark spiced rums, but packs in a lot of flavour, a solid punch of vanilla and a lightly smoky banana flavour.

Experts detect “a medicinal fruity hit” with a hint of treacle and coconut.

“The hint of coconut comes from golden whin [gorse] flowers handpicked from around the croft. We also use honey from our own bees,” Iain continues.

www.iceandfire-distillery.com

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