Take a non-alcoholic walk on the wild side with Wild Eve Recipe no 1.
Award-winning apothecary and herbalist, Amanda Saurin, is excited to announce the launch of her long anticipated organic botanical infusion drink, Wild Eve Recipe no 1. This innovative, small batch non-alcoholic drink is hand crafted from an exclusive selection of organic flowers, fruits, leaves, and seaweeds, hand foraged on the Isle of Harris, in the Outer Hebrides of Scotland. The carefully blended botanicals assist to reduce stress, alleviate anxiety, and invite calm through the innate properties of the plants.
The Nose: These are pleasing but fleeting – Grapefruit is at the forefront giving an instant brightness as Wild Eve is cultivated with only the peel which contains the precious oil and all its key benefits.
The Palate: Then come the middle notes, the heart of the drink – these are the warm, comforting, tastes. The florals of honeysuckle, rose, and chamomile give way to the fruity sloe, then arrives the spicy juniper and the warming oat.
The Base Notes: Finally, the enduring scents and flavours that give the length – the heat of the chipotle, the earthiness of gentian, ashwagandha and bogbean and that little umami pop of the sea that Sugar Kelp always offers.
The small local team that creates Wild Eve require time, skill, and a vigilant eye to spy the perfect picking stage – often abandoning their work to rush out on a fine day to collect the harvest. The weather on Harris makes the process particularly challenging, the plants are slower to emerge from the cold ground, slower to reach maturity and then much faster to dash to seed.
Besides the challenges, the weather on Harris is enchanting and crucial to the premium finish. The water is amongst the softest in Europe which allows the flavours of the foraged ingredients to develop without interruption. From the wild roses growing on the land to the sugar kelp hand dived in the pristine waters, to the chamomile and oats growing on the croft and the chilli plants that fill the windowsills, each of the botanicals are vital.
Drying the botanicals is a game of cat and mouse – the sudden rain requires quick release pegs to grab seaweeds off the line before dampening and delaying the sugars' defining moments. Some plants require weeks of careful management to bring out the full flavor profile, some need to be cut small by hand to capture the taste, and others need heat or smoke to reveal themselves. Wild Eve is a dance with nature, born out of decades of learning and experience, captured in one wonderful drink.
The extracting processes are slow, gentle, and considered, where each plant is handled carefully and respectfully.
This means Wild Eve will not be found anywhere demanding volume production including large supermarket chains. Instead, Wild Eve is boutique, created in small, sustainable batches, to be purchased directly with the distillers or through carefully selected stores that share their ethos.
Available now at Wild-Eve.com, £32, 50cl.