Page 85 - Issues131-133

new new zealand, this & that

In miNiZ132 we had 35 new NZ minis, which was the most for years. Believe it or not I have 12 new NZ bottles
to show you in this article plus another 42 from CarbonSix (see separate article, page 23) for a total of 54. My
cup runeth over as a collector of NZ bottles but it is not a completely good story – see CarbonSix article.

The cover photo shows three bottles, one old and two new, and I have shown them approximately in
proportion. Dr. Hearall’s Invisible Business Tonic Radio is the old, and rare, bottle (it is gin but does not say so).
These bottles were produced in late 1981 by Seagrams NZ as a promotion for the ZB radio network, including
affiliate stations such as Radio Caroline in Timaru. They were given away to advertisers or potential
advertisers. The club was formed in February 1981 and later in the year one of the founder members, Ross
Page, saw one on someone’s desk. Ross knew and contacted someone at the affiliate station in Blenheim and
they phoned 2ZB in Wellington and arranged for Ross to pick some up. Ross got 6, one for each member at
that time! The bottle has never appeared in miNiZ before as it pre-dates the publication and is in very few
collections.

The reason it is on the cover is that I have recently been given a few of them by the widow of a guy who worked
for the affiliate station in Nelson at the time. Label quality varies and the best one (the one on the cover) is up
for grabs. All members who have written an article for this edition, or who write an article for miNiZ134, will go
into a draw, with one chance for each article, (yes, I did decide this before Ron Gabbard sent me 4 for this
edition – more of that later) to win this bottle, postage included worldwide.

The second bottle on the cover is 2019 Boysenberry
gin from Blush Gin of Rosedale, Auckland. My thanks
to Frank Wynn for alerting me to these.
https://blushginstore.co.nz/ These are all 10cl minis.
Shown on the left are the other three offerings, 2017
Rhubarb Gin, 2020 Summer Citrus Gin and Russell
Rum.

Read about the final cover bottle, Zesty Citrus Gin, in
an article on CarbonSix distillery later in this edition.

Frank also alerted me to the set of four bottles from
LWF Distilling, https://lwfdistilling.com/ from Taranaki.
At $50 for the four, plus postage, these are over-
priced.

Sticking with bottles found by Frank we have a final three from The Vicar’s
Son, Holy Spirit NS (Navy Strength Gin), Frank’s Gin (well named that one
Frank) and Sacrilege Gin, which is a sample bottle. https://vicarsson.co.nz/

Starting the next page we have two good finds from Erica Mulder, both
from Smooth Spirits of Tauranga. https://smoothspirits.co.nz/ Moo+d Milk
Vodka is 100% New Zealand. I am assuming that this is one of many NZ
spirits and liqueurs using whey alcohol as a base. There are, to my
knowledge, three dairy factories in NZ fermenting and distilling the whey
from making cheese or casein into alcohol. There may be more as alcohol
is a valuable bi-product with many uses. The best known drink made this
way is, or was, Bailey’s Irish Cream.

- 2 -