Two Yorkshire-based businesses in the food and drink industry are celebrating a special collaboration this Yorkshire Day.
Michelin-starred restaurant, The Black Swan and Yorkshire’s self-built gin and whisky distillery, Cooper King Distillery, have announced their collaboration in line with Yorkshire Day 2018, which takes place on 1st August.
The distillery, which launched its inaugural product, Cooper King Dry Gin earlier this year, will produce a range of bespoke spirits for The Black Swan, to feature throughout its famous drinks list. The spirits will also be featured at The Black Swan’s new restaurant, Roots York, opening in the centre of York this autumn.
Founded in 2006, The Black Swan, which is described as ‘a reflection of Oldstead, traditional Yorkshire with a swirling mix of creativity and eccentricity’, is celebrating its 12th anniversary this Yorkshire Day
Following extensive trial distillations, the first of the new spirits went into production on 26th July 2018. Created using flavoursome marigold flowers grown in the Black Swan’s kitchen garden, which are picked, delivered to the distillery and freshly distilled on the same day, the vacuum-distilled spirit has a stunning ‘summer-in-a-glass’ aroma and beautiful floral flavour. More spirits will be distilled as other fruit, flowers and herbs come into season.
Based in Oldstead, North Yorkshire, the restaurant was awarded the ‘Travellers Choice Best Fine Dining Restaurant in the World’ by TripAdvisor in 2017. Talented head-chef Tommy Banks was Britain’s youngest Michelin-starred chef in 2013 and won Great British Menu in both 2016 and 2017.
James Banks, co-owner at The Black Swan commented:
“It has been inspiring to follow Abbie and Chris’s journey in setting up Cooper King Distillery. With their infectious enthusiasm and meticulous attention to detail, it is no surprise that they are doing so well.
“These amazing distillates are enabling us to improve clarity, freshness and intensity of flavour to our drinks.”
With an aim to support businesses and increase tourism in the wider Yorkshire region, both The Black Swan and Cooper King Distillery work actively to collaborate with local businesses and have seen many previous creative collaborations with Yorkshire producers.
Based in Sutton-on-the-Forest in North Yorkshire, Cooper King Distillery was established by co-founders Chris Jaume, a chartered architect and Dr Abbie Neilson.
Whilst visiting Australia, Chris and Abbie became fascinated by Tasmania’s eight operational whisky distilleries and the hand-crafted premium whisky industry, which was just starting to take off in this part of the world.
With a mission to bring their discoveries back to England, Chris and Abbie set up a truly independent craft whisky and gin distillery back home in Yorkshire.
Abbie Neilson, co-founder of Cooper King Distillery commented:
“We’re delighted to have partnered with The Black Swan and share in their passion for flavour. It’s fantastic to see that throughout its phenomenal success, the restaurant still remains passionate about collaborating with local, Yorkshire producers.
“We’re very excited to be creating bespoke spirits for The Black Swan, to have the Cooper King name in such an established and reputable restaurant is really a dream come true, but the fact that it is a Yorkshire restaurant that we love makes it that much more special”.
