Yahoo Lifestyle Robb Recommends: The Kenyan Gin That’s Better Than Your Beefeater
After moving to Kenya, Australian expat Guy Brennan found a reliable way to beat the heat: enjoying a few gin and tonics in his backyard. It didn’t take long for the former finance professional to make the connection that some of his favorite bottles, though made abroad, relied on locally grown plants. “It’s crazy,” he tells Robb Report. “We send African botanicals to London for these guys to make gin, only to send it back to us to drink every weekend.” At the time, he remembers thinking, “Why isn’t there a craft distillery in a country of 55 million people?”
In 2017, Brennan partnered with Alan Murungi—chef-owner of Sierra Brasserie, a local restaurant and brewery—to start Nairobi Distillers, the nation’s first craft-spirits operation. Its flagship product, Procera Gin, is the keystone of the burgeoning domestic-liquor scene and a tribute to the country’s natural resources. (It takes its moniker from the scientific name for African juniper, Juniperus procera.) “We embarked on a journey of proselytizing about why it’s as good as, if not better than, other junipers,” Brennan says. “It’s the biggest of the juniper trees, and it’s the only one that lives on the equator.”
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Another factor that sets it apart: Procera is distilled using fresh juniper berries instead of the more common dried version, which produces a difference you can taste. “When you dry out something, you’re not just taking out H2O, you’re taking out the soul of that plant,” he says. To capture its properties, the company releases gins by vintage, each made from a single harvest—or from a single tree—with some enhanced by an array of other African-grown flora.
Procera Gin can now be found at some of the world’s best bars, including Dukes in London and Atlas in Singapore. Bemelmans Bar, at the Carlyle in New York City, uses it for various drinks. “Procera Gin is one of those rare finds that feels right at home here,” says Dimitrios Michalopoulos, the bar’s general manager. “It has an assertiveness that pairs beautifully with classic cocktails, but also offers new layers to the palate. Every bottle tells a story of place and craft, and that’s what we love about it.” That’s big praise for an upstart, and it bodes well for the growing class of premium Kenyan distilleries. Leleshwa, a winery outside Nairobi, has been making vodka from its grapes since 2022. Bahari turns molasses made in Kwale—near Kenya’s coast, south of Mombasa—into rum. There are even some makers experimenting with native agave plants, typically used here to make sisal fibers, to produce spirits akin to tequila.
Brennan acknowledges some bias, but he figures Kenya will be the epicenter of Africa’s growing spirits industry, which some analysts believe could reach a value of nearly $17 billion by 2027 (compared to $13.5 billion in 2023). “I think the best coffee in the world comes from Kenya,” he says. “The best tea in the world comes from Kenya. The flowers you find in markets all around the world are Kenyan. That same soil, that same sunshine, is exactly the same terroir that our African juniper grows in.”
Pour Relations
At Bemelmans Bar, general manager Dimitrios Michalopoulos chose Procera Gin for a floral take on the Gibson. “We are very selective about the spirits we offer,” he says, and Procera “feels authentic—not just another gin trying to fit into the same mold.” Much like the Gibson, which replaces the martini’s traditional olive garnish with onion.
The Gibson at Bemelmans Bar
3.5 oz. Procera Gin
1. spray Cocchi Americano
2. drops the Japanese Umami Bitters
3. pickled onions dusted with nori powder
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