Green Ant Gin is a unique gin made by an Adelaide distillery that is infused with green ants for an extra bit of citrus flavor and a hint of coriander.

Green ants have been a source of protein for Australia’s aborigines for thousands of years, and even though bugs are yet to catch on as food in the modern world, these little critters’s neon abdomens can still be used as a flavorful ingredient. Adelaide-based food company Something Wild came up with the idea of using the ants for their natural citrus flavor in a spirit that has won multiple awards since its launch in 2017. Created in collaboration with the Adelaide Hills Distillery, Green Ant Gin is made with Boobiala (a native species of juniper) as well as other botanicals like finger lime, strawberry gum, lemon myrtle, and pepper berry, but its secret ingredient is green ants, as evidenced by the handful of ants floating in every bottle.

The bugs in Green Ant Gin are mainly decorative, but their effect on the spirit’s flavor is no gimmick. Adelaide Hills Distillery founder and head distiller Sacha La Forgia said that it took months to convince him to try a green ant and then put them anywhere near his stills, but once he tried them, he knew they were meant to go in a gin.

“But once I did it was like an incredible flavor explosion in my mouth of lime and coriander flavors as well as a fresh acidic zing,” La Forgia told Distillery Trail. “It was just beautiful and I thought straight away ‘wow, they exist to be in gin’.”

While the green ants in every bottle of Green Ant Gin are mostly for show, like the worms in some mezcal bottles, the brave of heart can actually try to chew on them for that fresh acidic zing La Forgia mentioned, which apparently doesn’t carry over in the still.

“By putting them in the bottle, I’m hoping to encourage people to eat one and taste it. When people try one their eyes light up and they get a big smile on their face,” the distiller said.

 

Priced at AU$99.95 (US$65), Green Ant Gin has been on a tear at virtually every spirits contest it has competed in since 2017, and has been very popular with consumers as well. Interestingly, this is not the world’s first ant-infused gin.