The Story behind our name

The Old Tom is a gin recipe that was extremely popular in
18th Century England. Back then naughty distillers would cut their spirits with turpentine and sulphuric acid, leading to a pretty nasty tasting gin, not to mention deadly!

 

To make it more palatable, they would then add liquorice or sugar which created the sweeter tasting gin we know as an Old Tom.

 

The gin craze led to the government introducing
prohibitive taxes and licensing which drove the scene underground, so a story suggests that the name “Old Tom” was given to the gin, owing to the fact that some pubs would mount a wooden plaque in the shape of a black cat to their exterior wall.  Under the cats paw was a slot to insert money and a lead tube which would produce a shot of gin poured by the bartender inside.

 

Now we’re pretty sure the black cat wouldn’t have been wearing a top hat and a monocle whilst puffing on a cigar but we wanted our cat to look pretty special!