FIRST JOURNEYS - 80 GINS AROUND THE WORLD - PIN 49 OF 80
PERFUME TREES GIN, Hong Kong
AROUND THE WORLD, ONE BOTTLE AT A TIME,
PHILEAS FOGG WOULD SURELY APPROVE
A city with the most skyscrapers in the world and yet so many green spaces, Hong Kong is made up of more than 260 islands and is home to around 7.5 million people. It really is an extraordinary mix of huge skyscrapers, busy streets, mountains, country parks and coastline.
Allow me to indulge in a little backstory first....I didn't want to make this less about Perfume Trees Gin than the HK gin scene, but it provides a good backdrop.
You may remember Handover Gin, who claimed they were Hong Kong's first gin distillery and whose story took a rather unexpected turn in 2020 when the company was raided by Customs.
It was discovered that the gin was actually being imported from New Zealand and that the company did not have the required distillery licence. Unlabelled bottles had been imported and labelled in Hong Kong as having been distilled and bottled locally. The company's director, Steve Newton, and his girlfriend were arrested, and Customs seized 1,332 bottles of gin along with the still and other equipment at the premises in Tsuen Wan.
The whole thing was particularly awkward because there were already genuine licensed distillers operating in Hong Kong.
Two Moons was the first registered gin distillery, receiving its licence in 2019, after founders Ivan Chang and Dimple Yuen had spent around two years working through the licensing process. N.I.P. followed, having been established in 2017 and launching its first gin in 2019. When I spoke to the owners of Two Moons, they told me they were actually surprised to be learn they were the first registered distillery. They had assumed someone must have been there before them, and it was only subsequently that they heard about Handover's rather fraudulent claims.
At the time of the Handover raid, contemporary reports confirmed that Two Moons and N.I.P. were the two licensed gin distilleries in Hong Kong. They remain the two registered gin distilleries in 2026.
Setting up a distillery in Hong Kong isn't particularly easy. There is a considerable licensing process involving different authorities, and spirits over 30% ABV are subject to Hong Kong's high duty. Finding suitable premises in one of the world's most expensive property markets doesn't help either.
So it isn't surprising that other brands have taken a different route, drawing inspiration from Hong Kong while distilling overseas. These include Perfume Trees, Gwei Lo, Fok Hing, Bauhinia and Fragrant Harbour.
Perfume Trees was created by brothers Kit and Joseph Cheung to represent and capture the heart and soul of Hong Kong. They worked with local farmers and suppliers to understand the flavours, aromas and ingredients that make up the city and used them to create their beautifully aromatic gin.
Originally, Perfume Trees was distilled in the Netherlands, but its story has now taken another turn. The brothers have established Tankyu Distillery in Higashikawa, Hokkaido, and began gin production there in July 2025.
The Hong Kong connection, however, remains very much at the heart of the gin.
The white champaca, or Perfume Tree as it is locally known, is particularly significant. The fragrant flowers were once used to line the streets of Hong Kong and were sold by elderly women street vendors. The gin pays homage to these women and the generations of small traders who came before.
Hong Kong also owes its name to another botanical included in the gin.
香港 is generally translated as “fragrant harbour”, and sandalwood is a nod to the city's history as a port trading in spices, woods and fragrances from around the world.
The sandalwood used in Perfume Trees comes from India through an established Hong Kong business, while other signature ingredients include 15-year-aged tangerine peel and Longjing tea, both sourced through traditional local businesses.
The current recipe contains 13 botanicals, including white champaca, Indian sandalwood, aged tangerine peel, Longjing green tea and Chinese angelica, alongside the more familiar gin botanicals. It is bottled at 45% ABV.
There are brief videos on the Perfume Trees website which tell you a little more about the botanicals and the traditional businesses behind them, so immerse yourselves and have a virtual tour of the people and places that helped create this rather lovely Hong Kong story. They have also opened a tasting room in Hong Kong, so if you are passing by, do drop in to try their range of expressions.
And there are several other Hong Kong-inspired brands following a similar route. Gwei Lo is distilled at Thames Distillers in London, Fok Hing at Wharf Distillery in Northampton, Bauhinia at Thames Distillers and Fragrant Harbour at Hernö in Sweden. They are not Hong Kong distilleries, but they use the city as their inspiration and, in some cases, local ingredients.
Then there is Handover, or rather what became of it.
After the 2020 Customs investigation, the original Handover Gin disappeared from the market. Steve Newton has since relaunched under the name Fire Dragon Gin (Hong Kong Distillery - not to be confused by Hong Kong Craft Distilling Co [N.I.P]), again describing it as Hong Kong's first gin, but I can find no detail as to where it's actually distilled - his claim appears to be based on being established c2014, before any other H.K. gin brands and not being actually distilled in H.K. The relaunch is therefore a rather unusual second chapter to what was already one of the more extraordinary stories in the Hong Kong gin world.
For me, that is what makes Hong Kong's gin scene so interesting.
“Born in Hong Kong and made in Japan”
Jade Blossom
50ml Perfume Trees Gin
15ml Jade Blossom Syrup
25ml lime juice
Mangajo Green Tea & Lemon Pressé, to top
Dried kumquat and fresh lime wheel, to garnish
"Show me a bottle
and I'll tell you a story."