A gin created Gloucestershire distillery has been declared one of the tastiest drinks in the world.

The Douglas-Fir-flavoured tipple created by Tewkesbury based Twisting Spirits has been awarded a 3-star Great Taste Award, one of only 200 handed out to more than 12,700 worldwide applicants.

Great Taste Awards are the most coveted food and drink awards on the planet, with 12,772 producers from more than 100 countries applying to achieve the standard.

Just 208 of those were awarded the 3-star status, which means that their product is described as being 'extraordinarily tasty.'

Launched in 2017, Twisted Spirits is run by husband and wife team Richard and Mary Bateman, who wanted to create spirits with big, bold flavours with transparency of ingredients.

Richard Bateman, the head distiller said: "Back in 2017 Mary and I had the vision to craft a new range of gins that were genuinely different than others in terms of flavour, quality and packaging.

"We did that because we believed that the world was ready for something exciting and unusual.

"Today we are delighted to have received the highest possible, three-star accolade from Great Taste for our Douglas-Fir Distilled Gin.

"Of our three gins, Douglas-Fir really represents a labour of love and is the most difficult to perfect.

"We personally hand forage all our fir needles with permission from an organic farm. Each Douglas-Fir tree is genetically different with its own unique taste and no two trees taste the same.

"As such we have a favourite select few trees from which we harvest the needles, then, we carefully blend a specific quantity from each tree to produce our signature taste profile.

"The time of year the needles are harvested also has a big influence on taste, so we must be very careful about when we harvest to get the right results.

"It has been a challenge perfecting the process to create a Douglas-Fir gin that is clear and as fresh and delicate as this.

"Once we finally mastered it, creates a truly unique and complex London Dry style gin with our signature twist.

Not everyone is familiar with Douglas-Fir and that's no surprise really as it's an unusual botanical to use so prominently in gin, and to disclose on the label.

"We entered Great Taste 2019 with a view to showing that though unusual, this gin really is a must try.

"Having the Great Taste Judges unanimously agree with us is a fabulous validation of which we are incredibly proud."