April 08, 2022

What are Botanical Spirits?

Naturally made and lovingly poured, botanical spirits stand alone on the drinks shelf. Whilst they don’t make the easy cut as a gin, nor vodka, one thing is for sure, you’ve never tasted anything quite like them. Here at Highland Boundary, we ethically forage locally grown botanicals to combine with the purest form of alcohol to capture the natural flavours of the Scottish wilderness.

Where do botanical spirits come from?

wooden tray of nips of Highland Boundary's Scottish botanical spirits and liqueurs with a bottle of the birch and elderflower spirit behind

You may be surprised to know that although they are rising in popularity, botanical spirits are nothing new. In fact, your favourite gins, vodkas and other spirits will include botanics, most commonly Juniper. However, the type of botanical spirits that we create and that can be traced back to Europe, are a much more pure and literal in the sense that our flavours come the plants and herbs sourced. Whilst Juniper is essential to distilling a gin, botanical spirits have create freedom to experiment with all kinds of natural flavours and foraged plants which sets them apart.

What do botanical spirits and liqueurs taste of?

Bottle of Highland Boundary's Larch & Honeysuckle botanical spirit against a stone wall in Perthshire

At the heart of every bottle of botanical spirit is its purity. In our case, handpicked flowers, leaves, berries and other parts of plants are deliberately designed with a taste palette in mind and distilled with local grain spirit and fresh highland spring water. It’s simple and pure in its approach. No endless list of chemicals, no ingredients from overseas, we step back and let Mother Nature take the reins. Botanical liqueurs and spirits often have complex taste palettes that vary from sweet and pungent to bitter and tart depending on what the local landscape offers and the season. As you can imagine, this gives even the most experienced of mixologists a thrilling challenge when creating botanical cocktails with such variant and unusual flavours.

In the case of Highland Boundary, we are lucky enough to be located right on the cusp of the beautiful wilderness of the Scottish Highlands. It's this natural beauty and wilderness that we aim to capture in every bottle and share with you through the flavours that make up this wonderful landscape. Our Birch and Elderflower Spirit offers a light, refreshing and floral palette. Whilst the Birch and Sloe Berry Liqueur is a rich sweet blend. Nature really has no bounds.

Why choose botanical spirits?

Man holding basket of hand-picked leaves to be crafted into Highland Boundary's botanical spirits and liqueurs

Firstly, by choosing to drink botanical spirits you open up your senses to a whole new whirlwind of tasty flavours that only nature can provide. Explore something different and open your taste-buds to whole new, natural botanic flavours.

By choosing botanical spirits you are also supporting ethical distillers like us on our journey to spread the word on sustainable methods for producing botanical alcoholic drinks. If you have ever bumped into us at local farmer's markets such as Bowhouse, Fife and Inverness Farmers Market.

We value the nature that supports our products so in return we make a conscious effort to protect, improve and grow these places. And as mentioned before, we hand-pick all of our ingredients whilst out on a country stroll, basket in hand with no need for machinery. Our farm based in Alyth, Perthshire, is also an on-going project of rewilding local species and habitats which has been in the works for over a decade now.

How to serve botanical spirits & liqueurs

Glass of summer inspired botanical cocktail on a garden table with fruits

Once the bottle is in your hand you have total creative freedom on how to enjoy your botanical spirit!

We aim for smooth so you can serve as a straight nip of spirit or liqueur with ice, and maybe a dash of a soft mixer if you don’t like it quite so strong. Really explore and indulge yourselves in the unique flavours as you like. Or, how about bringing out your inner bartender and mix your botanical spirit with natural fruit juices and cordials to create absolutely scrumptious botanical cocktails. They’re easy to make and impress your friends with. Read more here about how to serve botanical spirits and liqueurs try out Highland Boundary's cocktail recipe list at home.

We hope that by sharing our passion for naturally made spirits that we can tingle your taste buds into trying some for yourself. Shop our range of Scottish crafted botanical spirits here and let us know what you think!