This British Gin is made of distilled ants.
I know that there are tons of places in the world where eating insects is totally acceptable (basically everywhere but the US), but I can say with complete honesty that I have never tried it. A British distiller named Will Lowe is aiming to change that with ‘Anty Gin’, an alcohol made of distilled ants. Before we delve deeper, we need to ask ourselves where we are as a human race when we resort to making ant gin.
The distilled libation is the first ever gin to be made from insects, so it will run you about $313 per bottle, but for the lives of 62 ants, that is a small price to pay. The reason it works and tastes good is that insects are well known for having a citrusy taste due to the formic acid they spray as a defense, so naturally as humans, we should consume it.
Lowe first created the liquor by soaking 6,000 ants collected from the forests of Kent, and soaking them in ethanol. He then distilled that liquid to make a special ant concentrate, which he then mixed with juniper, stinging nettle, wood avens root, alexanders seeds, and a lot of other snooty sounding British plants that apparently taste good.
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The first batch of ant gin was almost a year in the making, so you know its damned classy. I will say that if I get the opportunity to try Anty Gin, I will definitely give it a shot or three. There are many insects that I would never eat, but there are very few that I wouldn’t drink, especially if said drink involved alcohol.
