Alvearium Gin, which is distilled from honey gathered in Liuwa Plain’s miombo woodlands, has scooped up another award. Hot on the heels of being Zambia’s most sustainable gin recognised by the 2025 Luxury Lifestyle Awards, it now also has a Master Award from the 2025 Global Gin Master competition.

Alvearium scored 90+ points and garnered the highest accolade in this world-renowned spirits competition.

Judges hailed it as ‘complex and layered with great length’, noting a perfumed nose of stone fruit and apple, and a spice-laced palate brimming with clove, star anise and coriander.

Rather than using conventional sugar sources like grain, Alvearium draws its alcohol base from ethically sourced, wild-foraged Zambian honey. The distillery is solar-powered, water-efficient through a closed-loop system, and composts all botanical waste. Robert Bernatzeder, investor and director says, ‘We created Alvearium Gin to show the world that innovation and sustainability can go hand in hand — that you can make an exceptional spirit using honey as a natural sugar source and, in doing so, help shape the future of the industry.’

‘When guests visit Africa, they’re looking for authenticity and Alvearium gives them that — a gin rooted in ecology, in heritage and the spirit of regeneration’, explains Ernst Thompson founder and creator of Alvearium.

Community beekeepers hoist their hives into miombo woodland.