Why Jinx?  Our Gin is named after the The Eurasian Wryneck, Jynx torquilla, is a weird kind of woodpecker. Instead of pecking, it drills into the tree head-on. Once it has bored a sufficient nest hole, the bird twists his head to sand-out the inside with his uniquely designed head feathers.

Unfortunately for this bird, it's intense head spinning antics (also useful for warding of snakes and predators) made it attractive to people practicing witchcraft that thought the bird was possessed.  This use by unscrupulous people selling a vision of dark arts ended up making the most wonderful of birds tied to the term "Jinx" of Hex.  The only hex from our gin is that you'll love it.

Dremel, a company known for their power tools, actually designed their most popular rotary tool after watching this bird cut, grind, sand, carve and polish a variety of materials.

What we like about the Jynx is it's a clever bird with some fantastic adaptations not readily apparent at first glance.  This is the kind of character we seek in a gin...Cleverness that isn't readily aparent or overwhelming at first glance.

Our Story

It may seem like a strange reason to get into the history and craft of gin but Peter discovered migraines when drinking anything but gin, vodka or blanco tequila.  So rather than give up alcohol completely we embarked on a journey of cocktail making with only these base ingredients.  In the process we studied the great bartenders of London in the Dukes, various SOHO houses and at the Savoy, then continued our study of speakeasy style greats at Schwartz Traube, Buck and Breck (http://www.buckandbreck.com/) and Fleicherei.

See a sneaky Berlin speakeasy below.

In this process we got much more interested in the complexity of gin and have given up on vodka.  It's boring.

Then we studied at the Ginstitute in London and discovered how easy it is.  A small (legal) still from one of the great Portugese copper makers is key.  Amazingly, in Germany you can purchase 96% Trinkalkool on line and have it delivered (taxes paid) direct to your house with a few clicks on the internet.

PS/LC