Originally, it referred to moonshine, but today “bathtub gin” is shorthand for small-scale distillers using inventive techniques to produce fresh, award-winning spirits.

Rumour has it that “bathtub gin” dates back to Prohibition, when only poor-quality alcohol was available and home-based distillers resorted to using bathtubs to water down their powerful spirits. Thankfully, we’ve come a long way from those original days of amateur bathtub gins, and the term is re-emerging to describe innovative spirits, often crafted in copper pot stills (not bathtubs!) and infused with unique botanicals and aromatics.