Belgium has only grown kiwi berries since 2008, and it took a harvest of more than fifty tonnes in 2013 to put the fruit in front of enough people that a distiller took notice. Tim Bey did, and in 2014 he built a gin around it in West Flanders. Meyer's Gin Silver is the Old Tom of the house, bottled at 38% ABV, and the kiwi berry - grape-sized, smooth-skinned, tasting of kiwi without the fuzz - is the reason it exists rather than a decoration on top of it.

Old Tom is the softer, rounder end of the gin family, and the fruit suits it. Juniper is present and clearly drawn, but it shares the opening with a gentle green sweetness that never turns syrupy, and lemon runs alongside to keep the whole thing lifted. The kiwi berry reads in the middle of the palate more than at the front: soft, faintly tart, closer to gooseberry than to anything tropical. At 38% the weight is light and the finish is short and clean, which is precisely the point of the style - an Old Tom is meant to be easy company, not a statement. It took Best Old Tom at the World Gin Awards in 2018 and a Gold medal at China Wine and Spirits the same year.

Because the fruit is delicate, the mixer has to stay out of its way. Fill a highball with large ice cubes, pour 5 cl, then 15 cl of Fentimans Valencian Orange Tonic Water - the orange sits beside the kiwi berry rather than over it, and the tonic's own sweetness is low enough not to double up on the Old Tom. Stir once, then add a fine slice of fresh kiwi berry, which is worth the effort for the aroma as much as the look. Thomas Henry Elderflower leans further into the floral side, and Fever-Tree Mediterranean keeps things drier if 38% feels too gentle on its own.