Feeling antsy: New brand of gin distilled from insects

Eating insects has been a culinary experiment in the Western world recently, and we have seen worms in tequila for years, but using ants as part of the distillation process is a new proposition.

For their Anty Gin, Nordic Food Lab and The Cambridge Distillery distilled red wood ants, which produce a particular formic acid that is ‘a very reactive compound in alcohol, serving as an agent for producing various aromatic esters [chemical compounds]’, according to a press release. The chemical pheromones that these ants release are also the same molecules that humans perceive as aroma. The result is a gin with a distinctive aromatic flavour of the wood ant distillate as well as typical gin botanicals such as juniper berries and nettles.

In our Exo-Protein microtrend we explore how brands are making eating insects into a palatable proposition. For more on ingesting ants, read our Seed about The Black Ant restaurant in New York.