Hayman's Royal Dock Gin is given a new look

Hayman Distillers is repackaging its Royal Dock Navy Strength Gin as part of its plans to better emphasise its rich history as a family gin distiller dating back to 1863.

Royal Dock Navy Strength Gin was launched in 2012 and is based on a style of gin supplied by previous generations of the family to the Royal Navy and the merchant trade from 1863, under the mark ‘Senior Service Gin’. Navy Strength gin is 57% abv which was the strength required to enable gunpowder to light if gin was spilt on it.

The new look brings Royal Dock in line with Hayman’s core gin range, which was relaunched in June this year. Royal Dock now features an updated logo and a new label with new gold accents. While the design has been updated, the label’s pale blue background remains true to the original Senior Service Gin label.

Like the rest of Hayman’s core range, the new Royal Dock bottle echoes a bespoke family bottle from 1947 discovered in the Hayman family archives. It has distinctive broad, angular shoulders and strong embossing above and below the front label which reads: ‘Hayman Distillers. Family Gin Distillers since 1863, England’.

The name Royal Dock refers to the Royal Victoria Yard at the Royal Dock in Deptford on the Thames in South London, which was established in 1513 by Henry VIII. The gin was delivered to this dock, the largest of the Navy’s food and drink headquarters with London being the largest port in England. Gin, alongside rum, was an essential part of the cargo. 

Miranda Hayman, Hayman’s director, says: “The new branding gives the product a more contemporary feel while also aligning it with the rest of our core range of gins. Royal Dock is a robust, crisp and full-bodied gin, and its high abv makes it more aromatic than many gins. This means it is particularly popular in the on-trade as an important cocktail ingredient, within for example the Gimlet or Pink Gin.”

• To make a Pink Gin, ingredients are: 50ml Royal Dock Gin, 3-4 dashes Angostura bitters. Preparation: Pour the ingredients into a cocktail shaker with ice cubes. Stir well. Fine strain into a chilled cocktail glass.
• For a Gimlet, ingredients are: 40ml Royal Dock Gin, 20ml lime cordial, soda water to top. Preparation: Shake with ice and strain into a martini glass. Top up with soda water.

Hayman’s produces a range of six different styles from the gin family, which follow the evolution and history of gin over the last 150 years. The new branding now features on the core range of Hayman’s London Dry Gin, Hayman’s Old Tom Gin and Hayman’s Sloe Gin, as well as Hayman’s Royal Dock Navy Strength. The rest of the range, including Hayman’s 1850 Reserve and Hayman’s Gin Liqueur, is likely to be updated in early 2014.

Royal Dock (RRP 27-28) won a double gold medal at the San Francisco World Spirits Competition in June.

The Hayman’s range is distributed in the UK by Love Drinks.

19 November 2013 - Felicity Murray The Drinks Report, editor