Once, in fair Verona . . .
A few hundred years ago some love-besotted senorita called Juliet, while trying to discriminate her deeply beloved man from amongst men, observed “What’s in a name? That which we call a rose by any other word would smell as sweet.” Well ok, Mr Shakespeare, yet forsooth we verily observe that in our chaotic world if something is a particularly desirable rose amongst a whole array of flowers then it really needs its own appropriately descriptive name. Wouldn’t you agree, Romeo?
“Bartender, I’d like a Tranquil Still gin, please!”
Why 'Tranquil Still'?
We have a Still, from which we distil lovely stuff in small batches; we actually have a couple of them. And we have the time for tranquillity, at last. And a great sound system! We love cooking, and some while ago excitedly realised that creating quality gin, vodka or rum is essentially cooking, but with high grade alcohol and high quality botanicals as the essential ingredients. Oh yes, and time. And patience. And a degree of artistic flair, as cooking with botanicals selected from nature’s available range is akin to an artist’s exquisite blending of colours from across the whole spectrum. Intriguing, fascinating, exciting and a truly fabulous change from some of our earlier walks of life.
Round the garden
We take care to instil quality into every drop of our drinks, and give careful attention to every detail. It pays off, winning us Bronze in the World Gin Awards 2022, swiftly followed by Silver in the World Vodka Awards! We hope those who drink particularly our premium products make time to fully enjoy our distilled essences of tranquillity. From the initial pop of the cork and the aromas arising from the beautifully labelled bottle, into the glass, allowing the time to appreciate and savour the subtle development of the flavours around their palate. Indeed, our premium gin got its name after one of our taste tester’s (a challenging job; some lucky people get to do it!) reaction on first taste was to pause, then over the next minute comment “Mmmm. Floral! . . . it just keeps developing! It’s like walking round my garden”. They listed many of the botanicals in it so impressively that we named it ‘Round the Garden Gin’! And it’s this gorgeous Bronze medal winning gin that first placed our drinks onto the world stage.
Where are we?
This small distillery is set in a rural location near the town of Market Drayton in north Shropshire, close to the Staffordshire and Welsh borders. Rural Shropshire is beautiful, and peaceful, and has the rolling hills towards the south of the county that feature on most of our bottles. At the end of our garden stands the wonderfully crooked, wind-blasted damson tree that has become Tranquil Still’s logo. It’s perfect to sit under, looking out over the fields, with an ice-chinkling glass full of whatever is that day’s preferred tipple.
How we create our drinks
Of the 500+ craft distilleries across the UK, very few distil their own original base spirit from which to make their products. Tranquil Still is one of only about 10 in the country who do, and we do it because it lends our drinks exceptional quality. We distil the essential part of our original base spirit from a carefully prepared high strength brew made locally especially for us by New Brew Brewery in Shropshire. Significantly, this allows us total control of our quality and a carefully balanced uniqueness of flavours throughout our entire process, all the way from grain to your glass! But hey, if what each of us produce is really good to drink, does it matter that much? Yes, we think so. We and world competition judges identify its influence in our drinks' flavour profile. It’s part of what makes Tranquil Still's quality exceptional.
Our licensed distiller
Tony worked for many years in NHS mental health care, culminating in post trauma work as consultant clinical psychologist at the then newly formed Centre For Crisis Psychology in Skipton. Changing focus some 25 years ago to qualify also in law, he taught criminal law while engaging in PhD family law research. On becoming a single parent he gave this up, supplementing income by running a part time business in a manner that allowed him to keep full focus for his son. Subsequently, at the end of full-time parenting and looking to enjoy a new found peaceful tranquillity and stillness, after several years enjoyable creative play and recipe development, Tony’s hobby of creating alcohol-based deliciousness evolved into the Tranquil Still distillery. As he says, “I’ve moved from helping folk in low spirits to making high spirits! I’ll raise a glass to that!”
