What Is Pink Gin? Real Fruit, Fake Colour, and How to Tell the Difference

Pink gin is the fastest-growing category in British spirits. It is also the one where the gap between the good stuff and the rubbish is widest.

Pink gin went from niche curiosity to supermarket staple in the space of a few years. Walk down any spirits aisle and you will find a dozen bottles in varying shades of rose and neon, promising berries, rhubarb, raspberry, and pretty much anything else that grows on a bush. Some of it is excellent. A lot of it is coloured sugar water with gin somewhere underneath.

The problem is that pink gin has no legal definition. Unlike gin itself, which must contain juniper as its dominant botanical, the word "pink" on a label guarantees nothing about what is inside the bottle. Understanding what separates a properly made pink gin from a marketing exercise is the difference between a drink you genuinely enjoy and one you finish out of politeness.

What Pink Gin Actually Is

Pink gin, in its modern form, is a gin that has been flavoured and coloured with fruit. Usually red berries, sometimes rhubarb, occasionally citrus or florals. The fruit is either infused into the finished gin after distillation or added as a botanical during the distillation itself, depending on the producer and the effect they are after.

It is worth noting that the term originally meant something else entirely. The traditional pink gin, popular with the Royal Navy in the nineteenth century, was simply gin with a few dashes of Angostura bitters, which turned it a pale rosy colour. That drink still exists and is worth trying, but when people say pink gin today they almost always mean the fruit-flavoured modern style.

Most modern pink gins sit between 37.5% and 40% ABV, which means they legally qualify as gin. Some sit lower, around 20% to 25%, which makes them gin liqueurs rather than gins. Neither is better or worse, but it is worth knowing which you are buying, because a liqueur will be considerably sweeter and behaves differently in a cocktail.

The Real Fruit Question

This is where pink gins genuinely divide, and it is the single thing most worth paying attention to.

Mass-produced pink gins typically get their colour and flavour from artificial or nature-identical flavourings plus a colouring agent. The flavouring gives you a generic impression of berries. The colouring gives you a consistent, often quite vivid pink that never varies from batch to batch. It is cheap, it is stable, and it tastes exactly like what it is.

Properly made pink gins use actual fruit. Real strawberries, raspberries, blueberries, or whatever the producer has chosen, infused into the spirit so that both the colour and the flavour come from the fruit itself. The result is a softer, more natural pink rather than a fluorescent one, and the flavour has layers to it. You can taste individual fruits rather than a single flat note of "berry".

Wicstun Distillery's pink gin falls firmly in the second camp. It is made with real strawberries, raspberries, and blueberries, with no artificial flavourings and no synthetic colouring. The pink comes from the fruit, which is why it is a gentler shade than the supermarket versions sitting next to it. Taste them side by side, and the difference is immediate.

There is also a colouring issue worth knowing about. Some pink gins and fruit spirits use carmine, also known as cochineal or E120, a red dye made from crushed insects. If you are vegan or simply prefer not to drink dyed insects, check the label. All of Wicstun's gins are vegan-friendly and get their colour from fruit rather than dye.

How to Spot a Good One

Check the colour. A natural fruit infusion produces a soft, slightly muted pink, sometimes with a hint of orange or amber depending on the fruit. A vivid, uniform, almost neon pink is a strong sign of added colouring. Natural colour also varies very slightly between batches, which is a good sign rather than a fault.

Read the ingredients. Look for named fruits rather than "natural flavourings" or "fruit flavouring". If a producer is using real strawberries, they will say so, because it costs them more and they want the credit.

Check the ABV. Full-strength pink gin (37.5% or above) will hold its own in a gin and tonic. Anything much lower is a liqueur and will be noticeably sweeter, which is fine if that is what you want but disappointing if you were expecting gin.

Look for the juniper. A good pink gin still tastes like gin. The fruit should sit on top of a recognisable gin base, not replace it entirely. If you cannot detect any juniper or botanical character at all, you are drinking fruit syrup with alcohol in it.

Consider the producer. Small distilleries that make their own base gin have more control over the finished product than brands that buy in bulk spirit and add flavouring. Knowing who made it, where, and how tells you a great deal. You can read about Wicstun's approach on the gin making process page.

Is Pink Gin "Real" Gin?

This question comes up a lot, usually from people who are slightly sniffy about the category. The honest answer is that it depends on the bottle.

If a pink gin is built on a genuine gin base, contains juniper as a dominant botanical, and sits at 37.5% ABV or above, then yes, it is legally and definitionally gin. It is a flavoured gin, in the same way that a sloe gin or a navy strength gin is a variation on the theme.

If it is a 20% ABV sweetened fruit spirit with a token amount of juniper, it is a gin liqueur. Still perfectly enjoyable, but a different product.

The snobbery around pink gin says more about the drinker than the drink. A well-made pink gin using real fruit is a genuinely skilled piece of work. Balancing fruit sweetness against botanical structure without the fruit swamping the gin is not easy, and the producers who get it right deserve more credit than they usually get.

How to Drink Pink Gin

With Tonic

The obvious serve, and the best way to judge a pink gin's quality. Use a standard Indian tonic rather than a flavoured one. The clean bitterness of the quinine balances the fruit sweetness and stops the drink becoming sugary. Fill the glass with ice, pour 50ml gin, top with tonic poured gently down the side of the glass to preserve the bubbles. Garnish with fresh berries to echo the fruit in the gin.

Avoid elderflower or rhubarb tonics with a fruit-forward pink gin. You end up with too many competing sweet notes and the gin gets lost. More on this in the full range tasting notes.

With Lemonade

Lighter and more refreshing than tonic, and a good option in warm weather. Use a proper still or cloudy lemonade rather than a very sweet fizzy one. The tartness of the lemon plays beautifully against the berries. Serve over plenty of ice with a strawberry or a few raspberries.

With Prosecco

A pink gin spritz is one of the easiest celebration drinks there is. Pour 25ml pink gin into a flute or a large wine glass with ice and top with cold prosecco. The dryness of the prosecco cuts the fruit sweetness and the colour is genuinely lovely as the two mix. Add a few fresh berries and you have something that looks like it took effort.

In a Bramble

The classic bramble uses gin, lemon juice, sugar syrup, and blackberry liqueur. With a real-fruit pink gin you can skip the liqueur entirely, because the berry depth is already there. Shake 50ml pink gin with 25ml fresh lemon juice and 10ml sugar syrup, strain over crushed ice, and garnish with fresh blackberries. Sharp, fruity, and considerably more grown up than the sum of its parts.

Neat, Chilled

Not the obvious choice, but worth trying once. A small measure of a good pink gin, properly chilled, lets you taste exactly what the producer has done. You will pick out individual fruits and the botanical base underneath in a way that tonic masks. Treat it as a tasting exercise rather than a drinking session.

Pink Gin as a Gift

Pink gin is one of the most gifted spirits in the UK, and for good reason. It looks beautiful in the bottle, it appeals to people who are not sure they like gin, and it feels like a treat rather than a practicality. A bottle made with real fruit from a small distillery makes a considerably better impression than a supermarket bottle in a cardboard sleeve.

It works for birthdays, thank-you gifts, housewarmings, and as part of a larger gift alongside a good tonic and a copa glass. If you are buying for someone who already drinks pink gin, a real-fruit version from a craft distillery is a genuine upgrade on whatever they are used to.

Where to Buy

Wicstun Distillery's pink gin is available through the online shop with free delivery on orders over £70, alongside the full range of gins, rums, and vodkas. Everything is handcrafted in small batches in Market Weighton, East Yorkshire, and everything except the honey rum is vegan-friendly.

To taste it before buying, book a distillery tour. The tasting covers the pink gin alongside the aromatic dry gin and the rest of the range, and founder Jago Packer will explain exactly what goes into each one. Tours run regularly and are best booked in advance.

Pink gin has taken a fair amount of criticism from people who have only ever tried the cheap end of the category, and honestly, some of that criticism is deserved. But a pink gin made with real fruit by someone who cares about the result is a completely different drink. Try a proper one and you will understand why the category took off in the first place.