Lunatic & Lover is a boutique distillery on Auckland’s North Shore, creating award-winning spirits with imagination and precision. Known for pioneering New Zealand’s first botanical rum and later launching Sea Lovers Gin, the distillery crafts its products in small batches using copper-pot stills, vapour-infusion, and locally inspired botanicals.
Founded in 2020 by husband-and-wife team Matt Bridge and Angie Bradley, Lunatic & Lover began with a bold vision: to reimagine rum for a New Zealand audience. Drawing on experience gained in the Caribbean, the pair developed a process combining traditional copper-pot distillation with vapour-infusion of botanicals - an approach rarely used in rum production.
Their Botanical Rum range, including the Silver Botanical Rum and the Barrel-Rested Botanical Rum, incorporates ingredients such as dandelion root, horopito, orange peel, cacao nibs, nutmeg, coffee, and cardamom. This unique blend produces layered, aromatic rums that have earned accolades including silver, double gold, and Best Packaging at the New Zealand Spirit Awards.
In 2022, the distillery’s creativity expanded into gin with the launch of Sea Lovers Gin - a collaboration between Matt Bridge and gin consultant Jill Mulvaney. Inspired by the ocean, this gin blends marine botanicals like wild-harvested North Island kelp and Waiheke Island oyster shells with rosemary, lime, and classic gin spices. The spirit is distilled in a hand-beaten 1,000-litre copper pot still, rested for three weeks, and bottled in sustainable, post-consumer recycled glass. A portion of the proceeds supports marine conservation efforts.
Today, Lunatic & Lover stands as a testament to New Zealand’s spirit-making innovation, uniting two distinct stories - botanical rum and coastal gin - under one roof.
