Sean Baxter shows us how to shelly (and explains how Oyster Shell Gin is actually made)

Sean Baxter loves a Martini. I love a Martini. I’d wager that if you’re reading this, you do too.

Within the pantheon of classic cocktails, the Martini is the one and true king of them all.

And if you’re reading this, you’ve ‘probably used a touch of saline solution — a tiny little hint of salt — when you’re making drinks. The practice of sub-threshold salting — adding a very small bit of salt to your drinks, but not so much that it stands out — takes advantage of salt’s use as a flavour enhancer.

So it’s no surprise to me to see Sean — co-owner of Never Never Distilling Co. — getting around our bars with with their Oyster Shell Gin. There’s a little lick of salinity to that gin that makes it great in a Martini.

Sean explains why and where that salinity comes from below, but it’s the method of serving this gin that he’s having the most fun with.

It’s called a shelly, he says. “It’s putting gin in a shell and knocking it back, but it’s a bloody delicious thing.”

Get a look at the video to see just how fun — and inelegant — the shelly is, and read more from my chat with Sean below.

Sam Bygrave: I’m told — by you — that we’re entering the Summer of Shelly, is that right?

Yes! The shelly is a new, exciting way that we like consuming our Oyster Shell Gin, especially in restaurants and bars, because it’s theatrical, it’s a bit of fun, and most importantly, it’s delicious.

So what is exactly is a shelly?

It’s not rocket science, right? It’s putting gin in a shell and knocking it back, but it’s a bloody delicious thing.

Now, does some inspiration for the shelly comes from Daniel Ricciardo and the shoey?

If I wasn’t going to say Danny Ricciardo had something to do with it, I’d be lying, right? It’s become pretty commonplace in Australia, whenever you celebrate any particular win, you put a beer in a shoe and you knock it back.

It’s harder to do in a restaurant or a bar. And we wanted to do something that was as fun. You don’t even need to win a Formula One race to do a shoey.

That’s handy, because I don’t think I’ve got a lot of hope.

You just need to be winning at life, which we all are. We’ve already seen it work in so many great restaurants and bars. You know, a dozen oysters goes up, frozen cold bottle of oyster shell gin in the middle of the table, top up the shell once you’ve consumed your delicious oyster and you’re off to the races. Responsibly.

Well, it’s just a small pour.

10ml.

And these are Sydney Rocks we got here.

10ml, and yes the smaller Sydney Rock is even more appropriate. You gotta be watching out for the big, girthy Pacific ones. They’re the ones that’ll catch you out a little bit.

It’s aimed at being something that is almost like a little amuse-bouche or aperitif right before you start your main course.

Is it important that the Oyster Shell Gin is frozen?

The colder the gin the better. It’s such a good time.

From a theatre perspective it’s fantastic, but you’ve also got the taste: the salt water in the shell mixes with the gin. That salt’s popping all the flavours of the our Oyster Shell Gin: Geraldton wax, marsh grapefruit, olearia, all coastal ingredients, with wakame that pops, that brininess from the oyster shell as well.

Wakame is seaweed, right?

It is. And that’s the little trick, that little pop of umami is the thing that’s gonna lift the flavour, make it something that’s super, super delicious.

Why Oyster Shells? What’s the point there? What’s the flavour you’re getting from the Oyster Shells?

Interestingly, the main reason why we use oyster shell has nothing to do with flavour. It’s far more to do with texture. We get a lot of marine character from the other ingredients we use, like wakame, for example, being a seaweed, olearia is a coastal daisy bush, saltbush, even things like Geraldton wax bring a level of salinity and a salted citrus sort of character. The shell actually brings weightiness. It adds a minerality and a heaviness so that it sits on your palate for longer. So when you’re having a delicious Martini made from it, you’re picking up all those flavours for longer.

Right. So the oyster shells, where do you get these from?

The oyster shells themselves come from Kangaroo Island, from American River. They’re processed locally. We started off by having like a dozen and testing them there, and then that went to a hundred, which was a great day at the distillery!

But then we realised we’re going to make this relatively unsustainable — and we don’t want to live off oysters. So we needed to find a solution to that.

We realised that the most efficient way of doing it was actually just using the lids. So we work with a local wholesaler. They take the lids off the oysters. Those lids go straight into a spirit bath. That’s then collected 24 hours later and then distilled along with the spirit it has been resting in. This creates our signature distillate, which is the heart of Oyster Shell Gin.

So the idea is to take a waste product, and make something tasty?

Absolutely. I don’t like to talk too much about sustainability when it comes to the oysters themselves — true sustainability is leaving them in the water. But when it comes to working with an ingredient that would otherwise be turfed, would otherwise be chucked away, that’s the thing that excites us.

We want to make something that jumps off a menu. I certainly think that Oyster Shell Gin, whenever you read it on a menu, it certainly tweaks people’s curiosity.

You can now get Never Never Distilling Co.’s Oyster Shell Gin in the convenient and sustainable format that is ecoSPIRITS.

And if you’re in Sydney on the 28th of November, don’t miss your chance to get personal shelly instruction from Sean himself, when they bring the shelly to Old Mate’s Place on Tuesday 28 November. Get in touch with your Proof & Company representative for more information.