Gin Pangolin

Gin whaaat?

Pang - Guh - Lin.

Gin Pangolin.

Yeah .... so what's a pangolin??

So glad you asked!!

 Image: Maria Diekmann. www.bbc.co.uk

What we’re doing

So pangolins are the best animals you’ve never heard of - and we tell you why below. (If you have heard of them – kudos to you.) Our little beverage company Blend Etiquette has teamed up with international conservation non-profit Save Pangolins to honor these fantastic creatures with their very own gin label!! 

We're a bold little start-up and when it comes to making gin we have form (and pedigree!) and thus have created a truly delicious beverage. With your support we can make lots more Gin Pangolin and assist pangolin conservation at the same time. 

For every $10 we raise in this campaign $1 goes to Save Pangolins.

Keep reading to learn more about pangolins, Save Pangolins, Blend Etiquette and what we'll do with your support. Let's do this for pangolins!! 

Photo: Sim Leeheng - excellent Guide for Chi Phat Community Based Ecotourism project in the Southern Cardamom Mountains, Koh Kong, Cambodia who took Lindon to meet pangolins rescued from poachers. As a guest of the Wildlife Alliance Wildlife Release Centre he saw the pangolin-saving work firsthand. 

Who we are and why we make great gin

Blend Etiquette has been on the South Australian scene for nearly three years now with our product Snake Oil Tonic Syrup. It was a successful small start up created during university breaks by Lindon Lark and Geordan Elliss and is now stocked Australia wide.  

Snake Oil Tonic Syrup is our rendition of the original remedial tonics of British India, where quinine was used to combat malaria. It is made using two different strains of Cinchona Bark alongside a range of citrus and floral elements. It is non-alcoholic and along with soda water is the key ingredient in a high quality Gin and Tonic.

The logical progression was making gin to go with our superb tonic and also strong enough to stand alone. We imagined a martini gin that is smooth, clean, has some depth of character but is not too floral or overbearing. A gin that doesn't clash with company.

So what do we know about making gin? As it turns out we’re very well connected in the gin department. We are second generation Australian gin makers born at Kangaroo Island Spirits - the makers of Australia's 2016 championship gin Old Tom. We learned our craft under Jon Lark who knows a thing or two about spirits and gin in particular. We are also affiliated with The Howling Owl - "Adelaide's premier gin den". Lindon did the hard yards for four years through his University degree (and masters) at the bar and is proud to be associated with this wonderful establishment.

So with all this background what did we achieve? A clean coastal themed gin with slight oriental flavours to give a level of complexity. It's charismatic enough to get on with any mixer and yet totally enjoyable when alone, neat & chilled. Undeniably built for martinis.

J U N I P E R  .   C O R I A N D E R .   A N G E L I C A .   S E A   P A R S L E Y .   N A T I V E   L E M O N G R A S S .   F A L S E   

C A R D A M O M .   G I N G E R .   V A N I L L A .   L E M O N   Z E S T .   L O N G   P E P P E R .

Lindon Lark and Geordan Elliss. Co-Founders of Blend Etiquette.

The Journey

We set off on this journey twelve months ago. Along the way were introduced to pangolins and the desire to make a very good gin morphed into a quest to make an outstanding gin and raise funds for pangolin conservation at the same time (see below). 

We were delighted when our first batch of gin was created in July 2018 with the generous assistance of Jon Lark at Kangaroo Island Spirits (KIS). It was a whopping (!) 18 litres of crisp, clean, dry ginny goodness. 

Bolstered by the initial success of getting our hands on some sellable gin, we rashly committed to launch Gin Pangolin at an event in November at UniSA. Mad dash to Kangaroo Island and a frenzy of batching later we were able to get enough gin to sponsor 1,000 G&Ts at an exhibition. 

OK. We had gin. We had a label. We had bottles to put it in. People tasted it and loved it. Fantastic. But how do we scale up? 

We were planning on small batching at KIS until we could afford our own still but when gearing up for the Christmas rush we realised that it was a logistical challenge to keep travelling a 10 hour round trip via road and ferry to make Gin Pangolin. At the same time the small still we had access to at KIS was out of operation for a period of time.  What was the logical solution? Get our own still. That's where you come in.

Photo: rescued pangolins snuffling food and looking pretty happy to be alongside Gin Pangolin at Wildlife Alliance Release Centre in the Southern Cardamom Mountains, Cambodia. No, it's not photoshopped! But the Howling Owl log is.

So why pangolins and gin?

When Flick, Lindon’s mum, started talking about Pangolins after living and working as a volunteer in environmental education and ecotourism in Cambodia we thought she was getting a little overexcited. She'd done some work with Wildlife Alliance, a ground breaking and highly effective anti-animal trafficking NGO in the Southern Cardamom mountains in remote Cambodia. But after bombarding us with YouTube videos, Wikipedia, World Pangolin Day Facebook posts and her own photos of pangolins taken at the Wildlife Alliance Release Centre in remote Koh Kong Cambodia we had to admit – they are pretty special and deserve a bit of a hand. So the idea of Gin Pangolin was hatched.

Pangolins 

Pangolins are fascinating and highly endangered mammals that live in Asia and Africa. They’re such interesting critters with eight different species that range in size from 30 - 100 cm.  They eat insects (mainly termites), some climb trees (arboreal), others live on the ground and are bipedal meaning they often walk/run on two legs (true!). They are covered in crazy scales (the only mammal known to have keratin scales). They don’t have any teeth but have very long tongues. They are hunted and traded in staggering quantities because their meat is considered a delicacy in parts of Asia and some believe that pangolin scales have medicinal qualities. They are often described as "the most trafficked mammals on the planet". All eight species of pangolin are classified by the IUCN as threatened with extinction, while two are classified as critically endangered.

In case you didn't see it already - watch this video to see how awesome pangolins are and also get an insight into critical field work that Save Pangolins helps fund;

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_IXrdkrcoa

Saving Pangolins

After exposure to the plight of pangolins we wanted to do our bit to spread awareness and raise some cash to aid in pangolin conservation - but how? We looked for a bona fide organisation to partner with and found Save Pangolins. 

Save Pangolins was co-founded and managed by Keri Parker and Paul Thomson, two professional conservation biologists. They donate their time, waiving salaries to make sure almost every cent of donations go directly towards pangolin protection. Keri and Paul also serve as Vice Chairs on the IUCN-SSC Pangolin Specialist Group. 

We reached out to Paul and Keri and explained what we were trying to do pitched the idea of a joint crowdfunding campaign. The response:

“Hi Lindon, I checked out the sites you sent me and liked what I saw. I think it’s great you are carrying on your father’s business legacy and that you want to kick back for wildlife conservation.

We would be grateful to receive 10% gross of money you raise.”

-Our mate, Pauly Thommo

Our crowdfunding track record

In 2016 we successfully crowdfunded for Snake Oil Tonics (clearly we like an animal theme) and you can see the campaign here: https://www.pozible.com/project/snake-oil-tonic-syrups 

The campaign put us in front of an audience and really affirmed our faith in the wonderful people out there in crowdfunding land who support small bold ventures. 

What now?

We need your help. Our goal is to raise $20,000 through this campaign. 

If we successfully reach target $2,000 (more if the goal is exceeded) will go directly to Save Pangolins and their important conservation works. The rest will go into securing a gin still, the key to making sure that our gin and the pangolins don’t disappear from the wilderness. If the campaign is successful, Blend Etiquette will continue to donate 10% of all profits attributed to the sale of Gin Pangolin to Save Pangolins. Please do the research on them, we did and loved what we found. 

All your generous support will go directly to a home grown South Australian business and to these little critters, the pangolins. You’ll also snag yourself a tidy reward in doing so. 

So, have a suss of our campaign, there’s no pledge too small and we're grateful for each and every contribution. 

Let’s do this for pangolins!

Where is your support actually going?

Well...

300 litre copper pot boiler with a carter head still - $10,300 + $1,030 GST

Installation.

3 phase power, plumbing and any additional infrastructure will likely exceed $3,000.

Applying for a Producers license as well as a license with the ATO, more than $1,000.

The excise tax paid on the rewards from this campaign is just shy of $20 per bottle which will be detracted from any funding.

$2,000 + $200 GST will go directly towards Save Pangolins. This will increase if the goal is exceeded.

And of course you have the mystery expenses that are always hanging around.

With your help, we can make this work.