Why We Started a Distillery in Cornwall
People ask us this a lot. Usually while holding a glass of something we've made, which feels like the right moment to answer honestly.
The short version
Ben grew up here. He knows this land and this coast, and always wanted to make something genuinely of this place — not just inspired by it. Lisa came, fell in love with Cornwall too, and between them they found the oldest method of distillation they could and got to work. They wanted to build something their kids could be proud of. Something that tasted like home.
The longer version
It starts with foraging. Before we ever made a single bottle, we were walking the cliffs and hedgerows around Praa Sands, learning what grew here, what tasted of this particular stretch of coast. Rock samphire on the cliff faces. Sloe berries in the autumn hedges. Botanicals that couldn't come from anywhere else.
Then came the still. We chose a wood-fired copper pot still — one of the oldest methods of distillation there is. Slower, more labour-intensive, and harder to control than modern alternatives. But the results are different. The fire adds something. You can taste it.
We found our home in an old factory workshop near Praa Sands, on the south coast of Cornwall. It's not a glamorous building. But it's ours, and it's where everything we make begins.
What we make
Every bottle that leaves the distillery is fire distilled in Cornwall, using local and foraged ingredients wherever we can. The Rum Dhu range — White, Gold, and Black Spiced — is built on our wood-fired still and the character it gives. Ebba Coastal Gin carries rock samphire foraged from the cliffs. Keynvor Honey Spiced Rum is finished with Cornish honey.
We're a small operation. We do things by hand. And we think that matters.
Why Cornwall
There's something about this place that gets into everything you make here. The salt air. The light. The sense that you're at the edge of something. We wanted to bottle that — literally.
Cornwall has a long history of smuggling, seafaring, and making do with what the land and sea provide. We like to think we're part of that tradition, just with better paperwork.
Curious about what goes into our spirits? Read what goes into Rum Dhu Black Spiced, or see how we celebrate the seasons with our Midsommar journal.
All our best,
Lisa & Ben