Second 'gin craze' sweeps london

Industry boom

The gin market, now worth345 million ($530 million) in Britain and growing, has benefitted from a trend for "craft" products that has seen a boom in small breweries, according to analysts Nielsen.

The Wine and Spirit Trade Association has called for tax breaks to further encourage the industry, which has grown 18 percent in value in the last two years and makes a fifth of the world's gin.

Olivia Williams, author of "Gin, Glorious Gin" about the history of the spirit from the "Gin Craze" to the Gin & Tonics that fueled the British Empire, calls the current revival a "ginnaissance".

"The explosion of high quality British distilleries experimenting with flavors has spurred on all gin makers, new and well-established, to be bolder with their flavors," Williams says.