Byron Bay’s newest Middle Eastern restaurant, The Smoking Camel, has partnered with Brookie’s Gin to create a Turkish Delight Gin. A passion project between the two brands and owners Kim Stephen (The Smoking Camel) and Eddie Brook (Brookie’s Gin), the gin is emblematic of the close-knit Byron Bay community, and combines The Smoking Camel’s signature Middle Eastern flavours with Brookie’s expertise in gin making.
The Turkish Delight Gin is made by infusing Brookie’s Gin with the perfect balance of fragrant rose, orange blossom, delicate Meyer lemon and balanced with a touch of sweetness. Harvested from the Cape Byron Distillery rainforest, the fragrant white aspen (which tastes like lemon gelato) and native raspberries are distilled into Brookie’s Gin.
The gin was created with the help of Eddie Brook’s mum Pam Brook, who says ‘Brookie’s Turkish Delight was made not from the flavours of modern day commercial Turkish delight, but from my memories of tastes and smells in exotic Turkish sweet shops which abounded in inner Melbourne. Entering these stores as a child I was enveloped in the scents of rose and orange blossom, surrounded by luscious sweet sticky pastries, aromas of roasted nuts and sticky honey sweetness.’
The Smoking Camel, which opened in Byron Bay in July this year, will also feature the gin in one of their signature cocktails, aptly named the ‘Turkish Delight’. The cocktail combines Brookie’s Turkish Delight Gin, pomegranate, cranberry, rose, lime and foam to evoke the sweet flavours of the Middle East and add a Byron Bay beachy touch with the foam.
The Smoking Camel and Brookie’s Turkish Delight Gin is exclusively available in The Smoking Camel, Light Years Asian Diner and Moonlight Japanese, as well as through the Cape Byron Distillery website (www.capebyrondistillery.com), cellar door and local bottle shops.
To celebrate the launch of the collaboration gin Cape Byron Distillery will be hosting a free-to-attend party at the distillery this Sunday, 24 September from 1pm with food and music by The Smoking Camel and cocktails by Brookie’s Gin!
More information via thesmokingcamel.com and capebyrondistillery.com.
For four decades The Echo has printed the stories some people loved, some people hated, and some pretended not to read. If you want us to keep telling the truth, the real truth, not the sugar-coated version. We’ll need your support to keep the presses rolling. 
