Seedlip - 'Grove 42' Citrus Non-Alcoholic Distilled Spirit

Over three hundred years ago, it was common for physicians to distil herbal remedies using copper stills, harnessing the power of nature & alchemy to solve medical maladies. In 1651, one such physician, John French, published The Art of Distillation documenting these non-alcoholic recipes. At that same time, a family in Lincolnshire had started farming, hand sowing seeds using baskets called ‘seedlips’.

Centuries later, Ben stumbled across John French’s recipes & began experimenting with them in his kitchen, using a small copper still & herbs from his garden. That might have been the end of the story, if he hadn’t been given a sickly sweet pink mocktail one Monday evening in a restaurant. The result was the beginning of an idea to combine his farming heritage, love of nature, his copper still & forgotten recipes with the need for proper non-alcoholic options; a name inspired by the seed baskets carried by his family centuries before & a process of Seed to Lip: and so Seedlip was born.

GREEN SHOOTS

Following two years of experimentation to develop a bespoke distillation process for each individual ingredient, Seedlip’s aromatic Spice 94 debuted in Selfridges in late 2015, the very first batch of 1000 bottles sold out in just three weeks, the next in three days, and the third 1000 in less than half an hour. Iconic bars, hotels & restaurants like The Fat Duck, The Clove Club, Dandelyan, The Savoy, The Ritz & The Hand & Flowers, even Buckingham Palace were soon in touch. The demand was clear.

The herbal Garden 108 using Peas picked from the family farm would follow, the team grew, as did the list of impressive customers. New cities were launched, awards were won, new cocktails developed & the demand continued to show the need & potential of leading this movement of considered options for those not drinking alcohol.

BUD TO BLOOM

What began in a kitchen in the woods is now part of a worldwide revolution - the way we drink is indeed changing. The days of lime & soda are over, sugary carbonated or fruit juice-based drinks just won’t do.

FIRST HARVEST

Two gold medals at the RHS Chelsea Flower Show, a second office in Los Angeles, the creation of the NOgroni® for the World’s 50 Best Bar Awards, publishing a recipe book with Penguin, the recent launch of the citrus blend, Grove 42, an exclusive one night edition of the first dark Distilled non-alcoholic Spirit Harvest 36 & the global launch of the first ever NO & LO alcohol cocktail concept (Nolo®) are just some of the many highlights Seedlip is both proud & humbled to have experienced in just 140 weeks!

Today, you can find Seedlip in 20x international cities, over 250 top-rated restaurants, many of the world’s best cocktail bars, luxury hotels & high quality retailers. So regardless of why you’re not drinking alcohol, you should have the choice of a grown up, complex drink. Full stop.