York Gin has launched a rhubarb gin - as the brand celebrates its fifth birthday. 

The company, based at Poppleton, says customers have been asking for a rhubarb gin for years. And now it has appeared in the midst of Yorkshire's forced rhubarb season.

The gin has seven classic botanicals including juniper berries, grains of paradise and angelica along with the all-important fresh rhubarb. After distillation a natural sugar syrup is added to complement the natural tanginess of the rhubarb. 

Co-founder Emma Godivala said: “So many customers have asked if we’d do a rhubarb gin that finally we’ve caved in to mark York Gin’s fifth birthday. 

“Rhubarb is a quintessential English flavour. And the Yorkshire Rhubarb Triangle is world-famous for its technique of growing forced rhubarb indoors and picking it by candlelight to protect the delicate stems. 

‘We’ve worked incredibly hard to ensure this is a really top class addition to the rhubarb gin category.  We advise you to mix it with a premium light tonic, an elderflower tonic or a ginger ale or ginger beer. Rhubarb and ginger is a classic combination - and York Gin Rhubarb and ginger is a winner.”

The gin is £42 for a 70cl bottle and is sold York Gin’s shops at Thomas Herbert’s House on Pavement (opposite Shambles) and in the railway station as well as online at yorkgin.com.