A PHARMACIST has turned from dispensing prescriptions in a community pharmacy to distilling handcrafted gin.
Tatenda Chiposi, who works at pharmacies in Frinton, hopes his fastidiously-researched combination of botanicals from around the world will prove a recipe for success.
The 33-year-old graduated to be a pharmacist eight years ago, but increasingly his professional medical interest in botanicals was leading him in an entirely direction, fuelled in no small degree by the exploding gin revolution of recent years.
Intrigued by the potential botanicals offered for making a superior-tasting gin, he began his research which took him far and wide, including back to his native Zimbabwe.
Having unearthed rooibos from South Africa, baobab from Zimbabwe and juniper from Italy, in 2020 he approached the then fledgling East Coast Distillery company at Thorpe-le-Soken with his formula and asked them to to distil some trial batches.
With their help a formula was agreed and next came name of the gin - Matopos - which translates as “the rocks” and is a famous picturesque rock formation in south-eastern Zimbabwe.
Batches of 250 bottles are now being distilled and the challenge for 2022 is to sell 2,000 bottles.
Tatenda, who lives in Colchester, said: “When I began my gin-making journey, the aim was to make the gin so good you could drink it Matopos – on the rocks. The name fitted perfectly.
“Whilst there are many gins out there, our aim is to produce something which is so elegant and mellow, people will smile while they drink it.
“Our 70cl bottle retails at £35, which is competitive at the superior end of the gin market, but the taste differentiates it from the crowd.
“When we carried out blind tastings, we offered Matopos up against another high-end brand and Matopos was heavily the preferred one, which gives us confidence we have a great product.
“It’s our combination of seven botanicals which gives it the great taste.”
Matopos is a London dry gin, but Tatenda hopes the next one will compete with the plethora of intriguingly-flavoured gins now dominating the shelves.
To find out more, go to matoposspirit.co.uk.
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