Who are you, and what’s your role?
Paul and Leanne Colman (Owners)
How long have you had the distillery open?
Three years now
What inspired you / the company to start distilling?
Born out of a desire to escape from the daily grind of the rat race and a mutual love all things gin.
We wanted to own a business that would allow Leanne to leave work and not be dragged down by the rat race that coupled with a desire to create a great product related to our home town of darlington.
How would describe the distillery’s ethos? / Are there any particular initiatives?
The Little Quaker Distillery is based in Darlington in the North East of England it embraces the history of the town and hopes to trade on its values. The distillery hand crafts all of its bottles of gin using local ingredients sourced from local retailers, each batch is made in small volumes to give every batch an individual feel.
The latest distilling equipment seamlessly combined with traditional stilling techniques going back centuries to ensure consistently excellent taste every time.
We are working on our sustainability how we can reduce our carbon footprint and also create a closed loop recycling element to our business. Above all else we want to create a business that becomes renowned throughout the north east as a good quality business producing good quality produce.
What are your plans for 2022?
We have our 4th rum coming out in spring and then we will see how the economy is faring as to whether or not to bring more gins out but certainly another couple of rums are in the offering.