Sunderland's Poetic License joins forces with The Chocolate Smiths to create chocolate gins

Sunderland’s Poetic License, based at the Roker Hotel, has joined forces with chocolate company The Chocolate Smiths, based in Newcastle, to create two chocolate gin liqueurs.

Both companies are North East success stories in their field and there’s been lots of interest in the sweet gins ahead of their release this Saturday at 8pm.

Lee Gowland, distillery manager at Poetic License said: “The response from social media has been fantastic, and we may make future drops depending on how this goes.”

Poetic License has made 2,800 bottles of the Bizarre Gin Liqueurs. One flavour is Birthday Cake, with notes of vanilla, raspberry and cake, with added sparkles, while the other is Salted Caramel, which tastes like chocolate brownies. Both are inspired by two of Chocolate Smiths’ most popular Bizzare range chocolate bars and they will go on sale from 8pm on Saturday, July 31.

Speaking about how the collaboration came about, Lee said: “We’ve followed Chocolate Smiths for a while as a form of best practice in social media for a small North East business. A conversation started and it went from there. We had a meeting at their chocolate factory and it was obvious how passionate the owner, Steffi Smith, is about her products and diversifying.

"She’s done a number of successful collaborations, but this is her first time working with a distillery.”

The distillery team got to sample plenty of chocolate as they perfected the tasting notes of the liqueurs.

Lee said: “What’s also great is that the liqueurs are vegan-friendly and gluten-free, which chocolate often isn’t, so it allows people who can’t buy some chocolate to get that taste in alcohol form.

"We’ve got a great team in house and it tastes just like the chocolate bars. It’s been fantastic working with a fellow independent North East business and we’ve learnt so much from each other.”

Poetic License Distillery is one of Sunderland’s most successful food and drink businesses, with its gins stocked across the country, as well as on the shelves of high-end retailers such as Fenwick and Harrods.

*Bizarre Birthday Cake Gin Liqueur and Bizarre Salted Carmel will be launching at 8pm on July 31 from https://www.thechocolatesmiths.com/, priced £25.99 for a 70cl bottle.

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