To mark World Gin Day today, MAXINE GORDON raises a glass to the husband and wife team bringing gin distilling back to Yorkshire.

WHEN Karl and Cathy Mason make you a gin and tonic, a trip to the greengrocer's is a prerequisite.

They like to garnish this most traditional of British tipples with some wholly unconventional accompaniments.

Take your pick from pink grapefruit, slices of Granny Smith apple and generous shavings of lime peel.

If that's not exotic enough, then the Masons suggest floating a rosemary sprig or strawberries with black pepper in your gin cocktail.

Gin, as you might have guessed, is a passion for the Masons. So much so that they have set up their own distillery and are making Yorkshire's one and only gin, from a small production unit in Bedale.

Mason's Yorkshire Gin was launched exactly a year ago on World Gin Day - and has quickly established itself as a spirit of note among premier brands.

Karl is a gin aficionado and had set up a Facebook page, blogging about the various brands on the market. He had 10,000 followers and would often be sent new varieties to try. "Some of them were very poor," he confessed. "Probably one night, when I had had one to many, I said: 'I could do better'."

And so Yorkshire Gin was born.

The couple prepared three recipes and tried them out on friends before settling on the definitive selection and ratio of ingredients for their Yorkshire Gin.

All gins, explains Cathy, are made from variations on key ingredients: juniper, coriander, and citrus as well as spices. Their motivation was to make one that tasted different, without the often over-powering flowery taste of juniper.

Karl explains: "Your stereotypical gin is one of perfume, aftershave, flowers. Ours doesn't fit that stereotype. It has those elements but they are in the background.

"There's a lot more going in on gins; every gin probably has at least eight, nine or ten botanicals, but you can't taste them because the juniper is right there in your face, so all you notice is the florals. With ours, we have turned it down, so you do notice them in ours."

Cardamom, bay, fennel and Szechuan pepper are just some of the flavours flooding to the fore of Mason's Gin. It gives the drink a drier, more earthy and, dare I say, masculine taste. The other main ingredient is Harrogate spring water.

By adding the different garnishes, however, the drink reveals its versatility. With grapefruit peel, you pick up the bitterness of the Seville orange peel that is added for its citrus layer; the Granny Smith apple brings a clean, crisp freshness.

Mason's is a "London Dry Gin", which means all the botanicals are present during its distillation and nothing is added later.

In another twist, the couple like to serve their gin "Spanish style".

Cathy says: "We drink it like how they do in Spain - a double measure in a balloon glass; it makes all the difference."

Lots of ice and a good tonic is essential too, adds Karl (they prefer Fever Tree tonic).

They have ordered some branded balloon glasses for delivery to select hotels and restaurants that serve Yorkshire Gin. In Hotel Chocolat restaurants, they make a cocktail featuring Yorkshire Gin with slow gin, honey and soda water. "It also works really well as a Dry Martini," says Karl.

The challenge for this year is to get the new distillery up to speed. The gin was first made in Cambridge while the Masons investigated the distilling process.

They imported the copper still from Portugal in the spring, which has a capacity of 300 litres and which they have christened Steve. They expect to produce 450 bottles per distillation and plan to distil twice a month (they each have day jobs, Cathy works as a teaching assistant and Karl runs a publishing business).

They sell online and at various food and drink fairs. A highlight of their year was a visit to the British Ambassador's residence in Paris as part of a contingent of producers from Yorkshire, flying the flag for regional fare ahead of the Grand Depart.

It was a rare break from the relentless work that goes into getting a new business of the ground.

Beside distilling the gin, they couple have to bottle and label it, then attend to marketing and sales.

But the positive feedback they are getting gives them confidence that they are on to a winner.

Karl says: "We will be distilling twice a month to start with, but we have the capacity to upscale to twice a day."

* Masons Yorkshire Gin comes in two sizes: 70cl (£39.99) and 25cl (£15.99). Find out more at masonsyorkshiregin.com