FIRST JOURNEYS - EASTERN EUROPEAN EXPEDITION- PIN 02 OF 17
CROSSKEYS GIN - Riga, Latvia
A ROAD TRIP WHERE EVERY STOP HAS A STORY
If Distillers Republic represents the newer, more experimental side of Latvian gin, Cross Keys comes from a very different place. Its roots lie with Latvijas balzams, one of Latvia's best-known spirits producers, whose history stretches back to 1900. Cross Keys was launched in 2018 as the company's first premium gin distilled in Latvia.
The name takes us straight to Riga. The crossed keys are part of the city's coat of arms and have been associated with Riga for centuries, making them a fitting symbol for a gin representing its home city and the wider Baltic region.
There is an important piece of Latvian spirits history sitting behind Cross Keys too. Latvijas balzams is the producer of Riga Black Balsam, whose story begins in 1752. Its famously complex recipe is built around herbs, roots, flowers and other botanicals, creating a natural connection between Latvia's historic herbal spirit and its modern gin.
The person behind the original Cross Keys was Jānis Māzis, Latvijas balzams' chief liqueur master. He joined the company in 1974 and had spent more than four decades working with Latvian spirits by the time Cross Keys was launched. His experience included working alongside people connected with the pre-war production of Riga Black Balsam and with the reconstruction of its recipe after the Second World War.
Māzis described the creation of Cross Keys as a way of passing the torch of tradition, taking the company's experience with botanicals and applying it to a completely different style of spirit.
Cross Keys was conceived around the idea of capturing Baltic summer in a bottle. Chamomile and linden blossoms are gathered during the Latvian summer and combined with juniper and rosemary, creating a recipe built around four key botanicals. Linden blossom has traditionally been collected for tea, while chamomile has long been valued for its soothing and medicinal properties. Together, these ingredients give the gin a strong connection with the Latvian landscape and seasonal traditions.
There is also a direct thread back to Riga Black Balsam. The people behind Cross Keys drew on Latvijas balzams' long experience with herbs and botanicals, with Māzis having worked alongside Maiga Podračniece, who reconstructed the Black Balsam recipe after the Second World War, as well as people who had been involved in making the spirit before the war.
Cross Keys is made at the A. Čaka iela 160 production site in Riga, a place with more than 125 years of spirits history behind it. In 1900, Riga's first state alcohol warehouse began operating here, and the site has remained associated with spirits production ever since.
The factory has lived through some extraordinary periods in Latvia's history. It continued operating through the First World War, reopened after Latvia declared independence in 1918, was nationalised in 1940 and became the Riga Spirits and Vodka Distillery during the Soviet period before eventually becoming Latvijas balzams.
Today, the same production site makes Cross Keys alongside Riga Black Balsam, vodka, liqueurs, brandy and other spirits. It isn't a small dedicated gin distillery; Cross Keys comes from a large Latvian spirits operation with generations of experience behind it.
Even the production water has a story. The factory draws water from deep artesian wells beneath the site, with wells reaching almost 200 metres before the water is purified for production.
The bottle carries that history too. Cross Keys was originally presented in a distinctive black ceramic flask, deliberately echoing the traditional packaging of Riga Black Balsam. Ceramic was an important part of the visual identity from the start, linking this new Latvian gin with one of the country's best-known spirits and its long history of herbal distilling.
In 2022, Cross Keys underwent a complete rebrand, moving to the white ceramic bottle seen on the newer bottle on my shelf. The colourful labels and Unlocking Nature identity gave the brand a fresher, more contemporary look, while retaining the ceramic bottle and crossed-key symbol.
Cross Keys was also created with an international audience in mind. At launch in 2018, the company targeted markets including the UK, Russia, Australia, Italy and the Baltic states, and by the end of its first year the brand was available in eight markets.
Cross Keys wasn't born in a tiny craft distillery chasing the latest gin trend. It was a calculated move by one of Latvia's oldest spirits producers into a rapidly growing international category.
The company was already making Riga Black Balsam, vodka and liqueurs on an industrial scale when it decided to create Latvia's first premium gin — and it wasn't shy about its ambitions, targeting export markets from the beginning.
The ambitions seem to have been backed up by recognition, with Cross Keys winning Gold at The Gin Masters in 2019, just a year after its launch.
Unlocking the story behind Riga’s Cross Keys
"Show me a bottle
and I'll tell you a story."
