After more than four years without introducing a new gin, Tamborine Mountain’s Cauldron Distillery has unveiled Navigator, a new signature spirit celebrating Australian native ingredients and the art of distilling.
Developed over 12 months by co-founder Darren Stewart, Navigator combines traditional London dry gin characteristics with locally grown botanicals, reflecting the distillery’s commitment to its garden-to-glass philosophy.
“It’s really going to become our flagship gin, our signature gin, if you like,” Darren said.
“I wanted it to be in the London dry style, but I really wanted it to signify the Southern Hemisphere and, more specifically, Terra Australis, Australia.”
The gin features traditional juniper and Earl Grey tea alongside six ingredients grown on the property, including four Australian natives: lemon myrtle, cinnamon myrtle, aniseed myrtle and mountain pepperberry.
Oranges harvested from the distillery’s grove and honey produced by its beehives complete the locally sourced ingredients.
The name Navigator draws inspiration from the Southern Cross constellation, historically used as a navigational reference in the Southern Hemisphere.
For Darren, perfecting the recipe required patience, experimentation and, above all, balance.
“You can’t have one ingredient that outshines all the others. You really want them all to be able to mingle,” he said.
“My last five iterations, it was literally just minusing or adding the quantity of each ingredient.”
The finished product delivers an evolving flavour profile, beginning with orange, transitioning through dry tea notes and finishing with lingering anise.
“It really has a big kick of flavours in there,” Darren said.
“It’s not a shy little fella.”
Unlike many traditional gin serves that use tonic water, Navigator has been developed to complement soda water without needing the added sugar of a sweeter mixer.
“What we discovered was it actually really goes well with soda,” Darren said.
“We find that just soda alone and a wheel of orange … really gives this a lighter, long kind of drink.”
Already available directly from Cauldron Distillery, Navigator is set for an online release, with a wider national rollout into major bottle shops being considered for late this year or early 2027.
