This gin is being made from surplus supermarket grapes that would otherwise end up as food waste
British fruit supplier and importer Richard Hochfeld imports bunches of black and green grapes from South America and South Africa and every year, the company loses the equivalent of 1.4 million punnets of grapes in the transportation and packing process. Out of the bunches, there are some loose ones and others that are damaged or don’t meet the supermarket specifications.
Total wastage of these “table” grapes (as opposed to those grown to make wine) is estimated at about 2-3% per annum, meaning a large volume of rejected fruit is not being eaten.
To put this rejected fruit to good use and minimize food wastage in the process, Richard Hochfeld has linked up with the West Sussex-based distiller Foxhole Spirits and Tesco, and is now converting rejected grapes into gin.
The new Hyke gin – the first in the UK to be made from grapes grown to be eaten fresh – goes on sale at 300 Tesco branches later this month.
Read more here:
https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2019/mar/09/first-gin-made-from-discarded-grapes-to-hit-tescos-shelves