Moonshiner Gin is more than just a celebration of Sydney’s inner west and Australian botanicals. It’s a collaboration between five gin-loving friends (Tim Barrett, Georgie Carroll, Jane Eakin, Andy Leonard and Lauren Griffin), who launched the brand in 2021 after a few late-night cocktails during lockdown turned into a fully-fledged distillery.

Its core range of gins named after streets in Newtown, Marrickville and Enmore, and created using native botanicals such as lemon myrtle harvested from trees across the inner west, kumquats from backyards across Sydney (including a retired teacher’s spectacular home garden in Enfield), early season pears from Goulburn Valley and pomegranates from a generous parent’s tree.

Sample them at the team’s 20-person tasting room attached to the distillery, which opened in a blink-and-you’ll-miss-it spot on Enmore Road. Visitors can sip on gin flights featuring four different gins covering a range of botanicals and paired tonics, specifically chosen to elevate the gin’s flavour profiles. The bar will also offer a selection of gins and matching sodas, and a rotation of cocktails.

The espresso gin-tini should be high on your list – it’s made with Moonshiner’s Aussie native gin, which has richly spiced notes of aniseed and cinnamon myrtle, a chocolatey Ethiopian blend by Coffee Alchemy and a natural foaming agent extracted from the soapbark tree, native to Chile. There’s also a Davidson’s plum gin sour, a pomegranate gin gimlet and a cherry gin martini with chocolate bitters reminiscent of Cherry Ripe.