The festive season celebrations are behind us and Dry January is here again. Although not everyone will want to swap an alcoholic drink for a non-alcoholic one, the choices available just get better every year. These include the newly improved line-up of award-winning fizz from Sprigster Drinks, renowned for bottling the vibrant flavours of the three-acre Pythouse Kitchen Garden in Tisbury, Wiltshire. With brand-new recipes and homegrown ingredients picked fresh from the garden's autumn harvest, they pack a flavour punch in every sparkling sip!
Pythouse uses a regenerative approach to food production, championing a zero-waste ethos. Even the leftover fruit mash is composted and goes back onto the garden ready for the next batch. The creators of Sprigster Drinks infusions are gardeners who love to cook and cooks who love to garden. So, their non-alcoholic recipes are inspired by the English countryside. The drinks preserve the benefits of whole fruit, spice, herbs and tannins, remaining 100% natural with no additional sugar, glycerine or flavourings.
The Sprigster Drinks journey began in 2016. Piers Milburn and his family took over a rambling Victorian walled garden, restored it and launched acclaimed restaurant, Pythouse Kitchen Garden. Homegrown drinks fresh from the kitchen garden featured on the menu from day one and, after deciding to take these further out into the world, Sprigster Drinks was born.
Home-grown fennel
Pythouse Kitchen Garden continues to gain high praise with the critics and press, including a rare set of straight 10s from Giles Coren in The Times and top marks from William Sitwell in The Telegraph.
Sprigster Drinks is soon launching the world's first ever single estate non-alcoholic aperitif. Infused with an apple reduction, Only a limited run of bottles will be produced with each harvest and RRP is £36.
There are three sparkling drinks within the Sprigster range, with a fourth on the way, all of which are unfiltered in order to retain the flavour and health benefits. They are all based on sustainably sourced and garden grown gooseberries, rhubarb, ginger, hops and fennel seeds. These are slow-cooked in apple cider vinegar and left to steep in a cask for two weeks to marry the flavours. After that, the resultant mash is strained and blended with a fruit reduction and topped up with Wiltshire spring water before carbonation.
Sprigster Hedgerow Blush is flavoured with a garden rosehip reduction (RRP £15), while Sprigster Original Botanical Infusion is flavoured with a Discovery apple reduction and local spring water (RRP £24). This month's recommendation is Sprigster Garden Brut (RRP £15).
Sprigster Garden Brut is a complex, dry sparkler, made with an orchard apple reduction and ready to enjoy straight from the fridge. It's a bold drink, packed with fruity and savoury aromas and flavours. Notes of apple purée, gooseberry, fennel, herbs and earthy spice are made all the more vibrant by a clean, refreshing tang of apple cider vinegar. Perfect for raising a glass with good friends and good food!
🍹 Sprigster's range of drinks are great for both alcoholic and non-alcoholic Sprigster cocktails, as well as for drinking as they are. Try mixing with a dry tonic or soda for an alcohol-free aperitif 🍸 .
Redcurrant Sprigster Spritz, made with Sprigster, gin, sherry, redcurrants, a pinch of salt and dry aromatic cider to top
You can buy Sprigster Drinks from their website, but can also find them at The Newt in Somerset, Daylesford Organic, Petersham Nurseries, The Pig, Soho House, National Trust properties and The Royal Parks.
