08/06/2026
⛵️ Always nice to put a face with a name! This Summer we were lucky enough to visit Round Turn Distilling , the producers of Bimini Gin , in Biddeford Maine, just outside of Portland.
Bimini Gin is a modern American-style craft gin, founded by Darren Case and Kristina Hansen, Maine natives who returned home after living in Brooklyn. The gin is named after Ernest Hemingway’s novel “Islands in the Stream,” set in the 1930s on the island of Bimini in the Bahamas, where the main character drinks gin with coconut water, lime, and Angostura bitters while relaxing on his boat.
Rather than following traditional London Dry conventions, Bimini is a “New Western Dry Gin” where juniper isn’t the dominant botanical the way it is in classic London-style gins.
There are notes of fresh grapefruit and light floral notes up front, with earthy malt and coriander in the background, plus peppery baking spices, cooling chamomile, and hoppy notes on the palate.
The standard Bimini Gin works well in a G&T, Martini, Negroni, or Tom Collins, and the distillery suggests substituting it for light rum in tropical drinks. They even have a signature “Bimini Special” — gin, coconut water, lime juice, simple syrup, and Angostura bitters.
Our favorite variant on this classic is the Bimini Coconut Gin. It starts with the same base distillate as the flagship Bimini Gin, then adds coconut flavor through fat-washing rather than flavor extracts. We love to carry two gin options from Bimini at the shop! And…go visit them and their delicious cocktail bar if you’re in the area!
