HASLEMERE Gin Festival is back by popular demand following last year’s inaugural sell-out event.

Better still, Dylan’s Ice Cream supremo Ben Govier has created three festival specials to get gin lovers in the mood in the run-up to the grand event at Haslemere Museum from 7pm on Saturday, June 22.

Ben has joined forces with Witley-based distiller Sandhills Gin to concoct a clear gin jelly, a gin and tonic sorbet and a non-alcoholic orange and honey ice cream.

They will be on offer from Saturday at Dylan’s Milk Barn in Wey Hill, but enthusiasts are advised to get in quick – last year’s pre-festival gin-themed ice creams sold out within days.

Sandhills Gin was launched by Tom and Jeanette Bird only before Christmas, but it is already making waves and has just been selected as spirit of the month for June by Fortnum and Mason.

Local gorse flowers and honey made by Witley beekeeper Ian Beaumont are among the 11 botanicals that give the gin its distinctive taste and they are individually cold-vacuum distilled to preserve their flavour before being added to the traditional copper pot.

Jeanette said: “The gin jelly is a recipe my auntie Maureen got from her grandmother and is supposed to have curative powers.”

The couple ,who have lived in Witley for many years, created Sandhills Gin in their spare time and it has taken more than a year from conception to launch.

Tom said: “We have always been G and T lovers but there are very few we would try again. There is a lot of novelty stuff. This was designed to please us and it’s a sophisticated but traditional gin.”

Sandhills Gin is one of more than 20 craft distillers at the festival for visitors to sample.

Locals Georgie Standage and Alice Milburn and Band are providing live music and magician Sam Harris will be doing some mind-blowing tricks. Festival food is on offer and a chance to win a gin hamper worth £200.

Visitors will be treated on arrival to a ‘Haslemere Gin’ developed for the festival by The Village Spirit Collective and served in the 2019 balloon glass and a Jeffrey’s Tonic mixer, courtesy of Haslemere’s Redh Real English Drinks House.

Antoinette Francis from Visit Haslemere, said: “As well as the return of some wonderful local distillers, we are also really excited to have several new and very local gin distillers.”

* To book tickets, visit eventbrite.co.uk.