I love Swedish gins but Hernö tops the lot for me – in fact it’s one of my favourite gins full stop. Hernö Gin began when Jon Hillgren, founder and Master Distiller, bought an 18th century farm in Dala, situated in the The High Coast of Sweden, and started to create truly organic, artisan gin inspired by the natural beauty of the region. The _ga cookie, installed by Google Analytics, calculates visitor, session and campaign data and also keeps track of site usage for the site's analytics report. With a sip, the sweetness of the Old Tom is apparent, but it’s only a step up from what I’d expect from some dry gins.

With the number of accolades its received, it really doesn’t need me to add my voice to the army of advocates of the gin, as well as the distillery itself. On a personal note, in 2019, Jon Hillgren became the third person to be inducted into the Gin Magazine Hall of fame, where he sits with iconic names such as Desmond Payne (Beefeater) and Charles Maxwell (Thames).This is Sweden's first dedicated Gin distillery which is made in two hand-beaten copper stills, Kerstin and Marit. It may not be reproduced in any way whatsoever without the prior consent of Waitrose Limited nor without due acknowledgement. These are juniper, dried meadowsweet, coriander, cassia, black pepper, vanilla, fresh lingonberry and fresh lemon zest. Some of the data that are collected include the number of visitors, their source, and the pages they visit anonymously. Within a few short years a range of awards had been bestowed on Hernö – including best gin for Hernö Old Tom at the World Gin Awards in 2017 and 2018.

I was a bit let down as not at all to my taste, very medicinal and tastes more of health tonic than something you'd want to drink. The sweetening lifts the floral notes, releases an array of juniper and makes the gin even smoother.It's got a cat's face on the bottle, harking back to how Old Tom Gin got its name - the tom cat-shaped plaques outside London gin houses from the olden days, where you'd put a coin in the cat's mouth and the bartender would dispense a shot of gin from the cat's paw.