Meet our first ‘Discovery Gin’: MUHU Sweet Hibiscus with added CBD

We’re very excited to introduce our brand-new Discovery Gin series!

Every month, separately from the main Gin of the Month featured in our boxes, we’ll be bringing a different, specially selected Discovery Gin to our Members’ Store. 

These craft gins will all be delicious, unique and adventurous spirits that we want to share with club members. All of our Discovery Gins will be chosen with a view to helping broaden Clubbers’ gin horizons even further - whether through exploring unusual ingredients and flavours or discovering exciting new distillers who are just breaking into the gin world.

Our first Discovery Gin offers all of those things. Made using ingredient-of-the-moment, CBD extract, and flavoured with fruity, floral hibiscus, MUHU is a groundbreaking gin from an entrepreneurial creator looking to shake up the gin market for a whole new generation.

Get ready for a whole new gin adventure!

All through university, Sally Wynter suffered through social occasions where vodka and lemonade was the only drink on offer. The gin boom, reverberating in the background, never quite made it to Sally’s student life – but, once she graduated and bought her first bottle of gin, she discovered a whole new world of flavour.

“Buying my first bottle of gin was a revelation!” Sally laughs. “It’s such an incredibly fragrant spirit and the cocktails you can make are divine. With gin, it’s always about celebrating the quality of the spirit.”

However, when Sally set off on an extended trip around Southeast Asia, she found herself back at square one. She says, “I was staying in a beach shack, which was called MUHU, and found that I had the same problem [as at uni]– I was stuck with the same sugary drinks that I wasn’t really enjoying.”

Sally’s experimental streak kicked in. She managed to find some plain alcohol – like the neutral grain spirit that forms the base of many gins – and topped one jar up with mangoes and the other with hibiscus. Two days later, she tasted them to check how her experiments were getting on.

“I couldn’t believe how good they were!” laughs Sally. “When I got back to the UK, I wanted to find something similar to what I’d made, but the only options I had were full of sugar and really boring flavours. I wanted something exotic!”

Just as she’d done in her beach shack, Sally started to experiment. She explains: “I was trying to create gins with exotic, interesting flavours that actually tasted like what it said on the bottle – not fake food essence. Infusing the gins with active natural ingredients was stage two of my experimentation.”

1. Cannabidoil, or CBD, is a naturally occurring compound found in the Cannabis Sativa plant.
2. CBD is not psychoactive and won’t make you ‘high’ - unlike its fellow cannabis compound, THC.
3. Also unlike THC, CBD is a legal substance, easily available to buy on the UK high street and online.
4. CBD is an increasingly popular additive in food, drink and other products - from lip balm to chocolate... and now, gin!
5. Medical research into CBD's beneficial effects is still ongoing, but users claim it alleviates symptoms such as anxiety, sleep problems and pain.

Cannabidoil, or CBD, is a naturally occurring compound found in the Cannabis Sativa plant.

CBD is not psychoactive and won’t make you ‘high’ - unlike its fellow cannabis compound, THC.

Also unlike THC, CBD is a legal substance, easily available to buy on the UK high street and online.

CBD is an increasingly popular additive in food, drink and other products - from lip balm to chocolate... and now, gin!

Medical research into CBD's beneficial effects is still ongoing, but users claim it alleviates symptoms such as anxiety, sleep problems and pain.

These active natural ingredients included yerba mate tea, a caffeinated drink popular at social gatherings across Argentina and Brazil, and CBD oil, an extract of the cannabis sativa plant known for its relaxing properties. She named the finished products MUHU, after the beach shack where the idea for them had been born.

These two blends – mango gin and mate tea, and hibiscus gin with CBD – were a huge hit with Sally’s friends, whether they were getting ready for a big night out or relaxing with a few drinks at home.

She says, “Different people have different drinks for different occasions. Some nights I wanted a gin that would energise me, so I would go with my mango blend, and my hibiscus and CBD blend was for smaller, more relaxed gatherings.”

MUHU Sweet Hibiscus Gin with CBD was so popular that Sally decided to produce it at scale and sell it.

But what is CBD, the active ingredient Sally has added to her spirit?

While derived from the cannabis plant, CBD is not a drug; it’s an essential oil with no psychoactive properties, so it doesn’t produce a ‘high’. But some users claim it helps to reduce anxiety and stop running thoughts in their tracks.  “I can only speak to my own personal experience,” Sally says. “For me, it’s a mood lifter. It makes me happier, more relaxed.”

Sally is thrilled for Craft Gin Club members to discover her flagship spirit and make it a part of their perfect nights in. But it’s just the beginning for MUHU Gin.

Sally smiles, “I have so many recipes written down at home! I’m excited to bring exotic flavours from amazing parts of the world to the UK.”