Scarborough Gin: A Coastal Spirit with a Cause

Made with kelp, cardamom, and heather tips. Created for a hospice. Unlike anything else in the bottle shop.

There are gins that taste like a garden and gins that taste like a forest. Then there is Scarborough Gin from Wicstun Distillery, which tastes like standing on a headland looking out over the North Sea. It is not a gin that tries to be everything. It is a gin that knows exactly what it is: coastal, herbal, quietly complex, and tied to a story that goes beyond what is in the glass.

The Story Behind the Bottle

Scarborough Gin was not created to fill a gap in the range. It was created for St Catherine's Hospice in Scarborough, a charity that provides palliative care and support to people with life-limiting conditions across the Scarborough area. The collaboration produced three exclusive spirits, a gin, a toffee vodka, and a spiced dark rum, with 17.5% from every bottle sold going directly to the hospice.

What makes the partnership unusual is that this is not a logo-on-a-label exercise. Jago Packer, Wicstun's founder, developed the Scarborough Gin recipe specifically for the collaboration. The botanicals were chosen to reflect Scarborough itself, its coastline, its moorland, and its character. The result is a spirit that could only have come from this particular partnership.

What Is in It

Three botanicals define the Scarborough Gin's character and set it apart from every other gin in the Wicstun range and, arguably, from most gins on the market.

Kelp. Seaweed in gin sounds unusual until you taste it. The kelp does not make the gin taste fishy or overtly marine. Instead, it adds a subtle umami depth, a savoury undertone that sits beneath the other flavours and gives the gin a quality that is difficult to describe but immediately noticeable. It is the thing that makes people pause after their first sip and say that is different. Coastal distillers have been experimenting with kelp for a few years, but it remains rare enough that most gin drinkers will not have encountered it before.

Cardamom. Cardamom is also the lead botanical in Wicstun's Aromatic Dry Gin, but it plays a different role here. In the Scarborough Gin, the cardamom provides warmth and spice that balances the savoury quality of the kelp. It stops the gin from becoming too austere or too unusual, anchoring it in familiar territory while still allowing the coastal character to come through.

Heather tips. Heather grows across the North Yorkshire Moors above Scarborough and has been used in brewing and distilling for centuries. In the Scarborough Gin, heather adds a gentle floral note with a slightly honeyed quality. It connects the spirit to the landscape above the coastline, the moors that stretch inland from the cliffs, and gives the gin a softness that rounds out the bolder notes of kelp and cardamom.

Together, these three botanicals create something that genuinely tastes like the place it was inspired by. It is not a marketing exercise. The coastal umami, the moorland warmth, and the herbal softness combine into a flavour profile that is cohesive and distinctive in a way that novelty gins rarely achieve.

How to Drink Scarborough Gin

The Scarborough Gin rewards a lighter touch than some of the bolder gins in the range. The botanical profile is subtle and layered, which means it can be overwhelmed by a tonic that is too aggressive or a garnish that is too dominant.

The classic serve. Pour 50ml over plenty of ice in a copa glass. Add a light Indian tonic (Fever-Tree Light or Franklin and Sons Indian Tonic both work well). Garnish with a twist of lemon peel and a sprig of fresh thyme. The lemon adds brightness that lifts the kelp's savoury depth, and the thyme echoes the herbal quality of the heather. Do not overcomplicate it.

The coastal serve. If you can get your hands on samphire (available at good fishmongers and some farmers markets), a single sprig makes a stunning and thematically perfect garnish. Samphire is salty and slightly crunchy, and it ties directly into the gin's coastal character. Drop it into the glass alongside a thin slice of cucumber.

Neat or with a splash of water. The Scarborough Gin is complex enough to sip neat if you want to appreciate the full botanical profile without the tonic interfering. Adding a small splash of cold water opens the gin up slightly and makes the individual botanicals easier to identify. This is the best way to taste the kelp, cardamom, and heather individually before they blend together in a mixed serve.

In a martini. A dry martini made with Scarborough Gin is genuinely special. The kelp's umami plays beautifully against the dry vermouth, creating a savoury, sophisticated cocktail that is unlike any gin martini you have had before. Use a 5:1 ratio (five parts gin to one part dry vermouth), stir over ice, strain into a chilled glass, and garnish with a lemon twist. No olive, the gin provides enough savoury character on its own.

Who Is It For

Scarborough Gin is not for everyone, and that is part of what makes it interesting. It is for people who have drunk enough gin to know what they like and are looking for something they have not tried before. It is for people who appreciate ingredients with a story behind them. It is for people who visit Scarborough and want to take a piece of it home in a form more interesting than a stick of rock.

It also makes a thoughtful gift for anyone connected to Scarborough or the Yorkshire coast. A bottle of gin that tastes like the place it was inspired by, that supports a local hospice with every sale, and that was made by hand in a small Yorkshire distillery is a gift with more meaning than most things you could pull off a shelf.

The Charity Element

The 17.5% charitable contribution is not a token gesture. It is built into the economics of the product from the start. Every bottle of Scarborough Gin sold contributes directly to St Catherine's Hospice's work providing end-of-life care, bereavement support, and community services across the Scarborough area.

This kind of partnership only works when both sides are genuine about it. The hospice gets meaningful, ongoing funding from a product that sells on its own merits. The distillery gets to do something that matters beyond making good spirits. And the customer gets an excellent gin with the knowledge that their purchase is doing some good in the world. It is one of those rare arrangements where everyone benefits.

Try It

Scarborough Gin is available through the Wicstun Distillery online shop alongside the other two St Catherine's Hospice spirits (the toffee vodka and the spiced dark rum). Free delivery on orders over £50.

If you want to taste it before buying, it is included in the distillery tour and tasting at Wicstun's Market Weighton site, where you can try it alongside the full range of gins, rums, and vodkas. Tours are led by Jago himself and last around 90 minutes. Book in advance as they sell out regularly.

Some gins are made to be easy. Scarborough Gin was made to be memorable. There is a difference, and it is worth experiencing.