Labels, labels, labels

Choosing the right label for our bottles was really important to us. It would speak to our potential customers, it would need to be attractive, legally compliant, say what we stood for, and be clear and easy to read. We worked with a couple of designers to explore initial ideas. What we thought we wanted (a traditional botanical image) ended up being nowhere near what our final labels would look like.

As part of the licensing qualification, we’d covered what legally had to be on the label, so that unit was easy to navigate. But picking an image style was hard and we went through many versions. We asked loads of critical friends for feedback. And this has proved to be a theme across our business. We never introduce a new product, or change our branding without consulting those trusted folk who give their time to tell us what they think.

Getting started

We have the most beautiful Victoria Plum tree in our front garden. It yields so many plums - too tasty to waste. So we had a go at making some Plum Liqueur. We’d been in France a lot, enjoying a Kir or two. We wondered about a plummy Kir instead of the more traditional cassis based drink. We decided to give it a try, making it the traditional French way, soaking the plums in a deep fruity red wine first. We gave some away as gifts and when people started asking if they could buy some, we wondered…..would this have wider appeal? The were many stages to pass through, so that we could sell our drinks safely and responsibly. There’s the licensing, the food safety, the labelling and so much more. But we worked through every step.

On 12 September 2021 we packed the car (having first remembered to insure it for business use) and set off for The Garage in Nottingham with a boot full of liqueurs, our tasting platters, beautifully made for us by David Entwisle at Isle Home and Garden and our biggest smiles. Our friend Lizzie came to help at that first market and we were genuinely gobsmacked that we sold 65 bottles in 4 hours. The feedback on our range of 5 liqueurs was absolutely amazing and we were overwhelmed with the response to our bottles after so many months of hard work. Of course, we thought that first market was a fluke  so we were mightily relieved when the same thing happened the next week and the week after.