If you indulged in a tasty little Gin & Tonic then you should congratulate yourself, because you helped make 2016 ‘The Year of Gin’.

Featured Image VIA

This year has been a complete and utter shitshow. As a result, people have been drinking record breaking amounts of gin.

According to new figures released by the Wine and Spirit Trade Association, this year was a record breaker, as sales of gin broke the £1 billion sales mark for the first time ever in the UK.

Image VIA

That’s the equivalent of drinking 1.12 billion G&Ts and these sales figure keep growing more than any other spirit sold in the UK. This is good news for the home-grown gin industry, which saw 40 new distilleries opening in the UK between January and November. Not bad. WSTA chief executive Miles Beale said:

There are many reasons why people may not feel like celebrating 2016 but the WSTA are pleased to give you something happy to reflect on – 2016 can now be remembered as the ‘Great British Gin Take Off’.

We hope that government supports our innovative gin makers who have driven an extraordinary increase in UK exports, up 166% since 2000.

Let’s make sure gin continues to boom in 2017.

Gin & Tonic has to be one of the most quintessential British drinks on the menu, so it’s only fitting that after this terrible year, people are turning to their favourite beverage to get them through. So I guess we can say one good thing came out of this year – record breaking gin sales.

For more on this wonderful spirit, check out the newly opened London gin hotel. This is what dreams are made of.