Zhen Gin

While the Circuit Breaker is set to end in two weeks, the bar industry will still require some time to even begin recovering. Initiatives have sprung up all across the drinks world to help struggling bars and bar workers — the latest of which is the #BarTabSG relief fund, started by the same people behind the recently launched, Singapore-formulated Zhen Gin. 

(Related: The latest gin on the market has a distinctly Asian identity)

As Asia’s first “climate-positive” sipping gin, Zhen was born out of the work of childhood friends and co-founders Min Teo and Terence Loh, both of whom were inspired to create a spirit with unwanted rice crops after noticing that a farmer in Taiwan discarded rice plants that were too damaged to sell. 

The New World-style gin includes botanicals like Thai coriander seeds, osmanthus flowers from Yunnan, and Bhutanese juniper — although the lattermost takes a back seat to allow the light floral notes and fragrance of the Taiwan-grown rice to shine. The use of rice spirit base also gives the gin a creamy mouthfeel, which makes it perfect for sipping just chilled.

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For the relief fund, Zhen Gin will be contributing 20% of all revenue between now and 30 June 2020, which will be shared equally among all eligible applicants. Applicants can supplement that amount by making sales of Zhen Gin, where they will receive 20% of the revenue from said sales. This also helps fellow bar professionals in the programme.

“Hit by one of Taiwan’s seasonal typhoons, we were lucky enough to have had the hospitality of a friend who took us in. It was then that we witnessed the hard work of rice field farmers being destroyed. With Zhen Gin and the #BarTabSG initiative, we want to express the power of resilience. This is our way of returning the generosity that was once shown to us in troubled times,” shares the two founders.

 

Zhen Gin is available in both 500ml and 180ml bottles, and can be purchased here.

Barbacks or bartenders that have taken a pay cut, or lost their job due to the coronavirus pandemic, you can register for the fund here