GREEN ANISEED ~ from Turkey, FENNEL SEED ~ from Turkey, STAR ANISE ~ from China, LIQUORICE ROOT ~ from Uzbekistan, ANGELICA ROOT ~ from Poland, GREEN CARDAMON ~ from Guatemala, CINNAMON ~ from Madagascar, ORRIS ROOT ~ from Morocco, JUNIPER ~ from Italy, FRESH ORANGE, LEMON & GRAPEFRUIT PEEL ~ (seasonally sourced), GORSE FLOWERS ~ foraged from the nearby Atlantic clifftops.

When it’s time to create Tarquin’s Cornish Pastis, 12 of the botanicals are added to our stills (with the exception of the gorse flowers) and left to macerate overnight in a wheat based neutral grain spirit.

In the morning Tarquin’s simply adds the gorse flowers, to complete the botanical recipe, and then it’s time to fire up the stills.

As the stills heat up Tarquin is constantly monitoring the process, nosing and tasting as the distilled spirit as it comes off the still at different temperatures. We collect only the purest ‘heart of the distillation’ (achieved when the still has reached the magic temperature of 78’c), collecting and setting aside the ‘heads’ and ‘tails’ cuts (the first and last parts of the distillation) that don’t make the most selective taste and texture grade.

Post distillation, this ‘hearts cut’ (around 76% abv neat Pastis) is cut with de-mineralized Cornish spring water to bring it down to the desired 42% abv. Then Tarquin adds extra liquorice root and fresh orange peel to bring some colour and beautiful freshness to the final spirit.

Every single bottle is then individually hand-filled, hand-labelled, dipped into a slow-cooker filled with paraffin wax, stamped with our Puffin logo, given batch tasting notes and then individually hand-signed.