Craft Spirits
Scotland has a rich heritage in Craft Spirits and it’s arguable that Whisky is one of the many things we do best in the world. Scotland has been distilling Whisky now at least half a millennium, evolved from a Scottish drink call uisge beatha which means “water of life”. The first written mention of Scotch whisky is in the Exchequer Rolls of Scotland, 1495. A friar named John Cor was the distiller at Lindores Abbey in the Kingdom of Fife.
Craft Spirits in the UK are bigger than ever, this has caused a recent explosion of new gins and whisky makers with 45 distilleries opening in the last year alone and more than double in the last 5 years. The craft spirits boom is because of a change in consumer demand. People are much more conscious about what they eat and drink and want clear, honest provenance and good quality products. The local and regional artisan producers are driving this boom rather than the big international brands.
The demand for interesting gins made by small scale craft and artisan producers is showing no signs of slowing and is actually diversifying into many different flavours.
These flavoured gins are not like liqueurs, which are sweetened and much lower in strength. Instead, these are full strength gins, where the flavours have been infused, distilled into, or added through aging in casks. That means the majority sit around 40% and are perfect for mixing.
Our team of Spirit experts have handpicked / mouth tasted what we believe to be the best Scotland has to offer, we also have the knowledge help craft a range perfect for your establishments. If you are a distiller that thinks they should be in our range, get in touch and see how we can help get your Spirit to a huge market across the UK.
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Craft Gins
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Brands In Our Range
Edinburgh Gin
Since 2010, Edinburgh Gin has been committed to the art and science of distilling, and of creating innovative, award-winning gins.
Based in Scotland’s capital city, Edinburgh Gin have been ever-inspired by its gin-making heritage, and of its position as a global light; a home to scientists, artists, philosophers and inventors. Edinburgh Gin is an artful distillation, capturing the spirit of these luminaries while respecting and paying tribute to their unique sense of place; inspiring them to create a world-class portfolio of gins and liqueurs. As a small-batch distiller, Edinburgh gin produce a dynamic range of gins for every occasion, and they’re dedicated to guiding peoples’ discovery of the modern-day gin experience. Every bottle of Edinburgh Gin is produced at their West End, and Leith Distilleries.
“As a company, we’ve really enjoyed working with Food and Drink Hub over the last few years. We’ve found them to be excellent partners in business with an experience behind them that allows them to understand the needs of there suppliers and customers alike.”
Matt Thomasson | National Sales Manager
Stirling Gin
Stirling Gin is a very new Gin to the market but is taking the market by storm. The idea was born from a gin loving couple whilst hosting their first ever Stirling Gin Festival back in 2014. Yet despite the success of that maiden foray into the ‘botanical world’ it was clear that one thing had been missing from the festival, a Gin from Stirling.
They realised the vital ingredient needed to create a unique gin that had as its key ingredient an indigenous Stirlingshire herb Growing wild and vital, the Stirlingshire nettle lined the paths of many of the McCann’s strolls seemed the perfect herb to provide the key ingredient for what would become the first ever Stirling produced gin. After painstaking hours of researching and experimenting mounted up in the Spring of 2015 the Eureka moment finally arrived and the first definitive bottle of Stirling Gin was produced!
Boasting a richly intoxicating blend of juniper, basil, angelica, orange, lemon and of course its key ingredient the wild Stirlingshire nettle, Stirling Gin provides a sensory experience that is like no other on the burgeoning gin scene! Now just over two years since that Eureka moment Stirling Gin have gathered a string of top accolades and were finalists in three categories of this year’s inaugural Scottish Gin Society awards including the blue-ribbon premium dry gin category.
“As a company, we’ve really enjoyed working with Food and Drink Hub over the last few years. We’ve found them to be excellent partners in business with an experience behind them that allows them to understand the needs of there suppliers and customers alike.”
Matt Thomasson | National Sales Manager
Isle of Skye
With their signature 8-Year-Old famously referred to as a ‘superstar whisky that gives us all reason to live’, by Jim Murray in his Whisky Bible, Isle of Skye Blended Scotch Whisky really is the stuff of dreams. Produced using distinctive Island and mellow Speyside malts, Isle of Skye Blended Scotch Whisky is blended using a unique recipe of the finest malt and grain whiskies.
Isle of Skye has its origins in that most celebrated of Scottish Islands: Skye, home of the Clan Macleod. Ian Macleod, the founder of ‘Isle of Skye Blended Scotch Whisky’, was justifiably proud of his family’s 19th century recipe which contains a high proportion of carefully selected Island and Speyside malts.
Its smoothness, mellowness and quality are guaranteed by the fact that every whisky in the recipe has been mellowed in oak casks for at least 8 years – the recognised age of maturity for many malt whiskies.
“As a company, we’ve really enjoyed working with Food and Drink Hub over the last few years. We’ve found them to be excellent partners in business with an experience behind them that allows them to understand the needs of there suppliers and customers alike.”
Matt Thomasson | National Sales Manager
Category Brands
The Food and Drink Hub offer us a bespoke service, supplying a wide, tailored range of local Scottish produce to our stores to supplement our core national range. We have found the Food and Drink Hub to be experts in their knowledge of the Scottish market and proactive in their approach. They handle orders with minimal fuss and have increased our supply chain efficiency and central control by reducing the number of direct deliveries into stores.
We have a fantastic relationship with Food & Drink Hub. They understand our beers and work hand in hand with us to increase market share and distribution. Communication is positive and constructive and Steve is always willing to offer feedback and advice on new brands.
The Food and Drink hub have provided excellent continued support for Hamlyn’s Oats, Nisha and Millar confectionery. They spotted an opportunity to increase their product ranges to the Hubs partners and that has been pinnacle to this year’s success. I firmly believe that in partnership with The Food and Drink Hub can grow these brands and produce so many exciting products in each of the product categories.
As a company, we’ve really enjoyed working with The Food and Drink Hub over the last few years. We’ve found them to be excellent partners in business with an experience behind them that allows them to understand the needs of their suppliers and customers alike.
As a relatively new entrant to the world of the multiples, we’ve found the support offered by The Food and Drink Hub invaluable. They understood what was different about our brand and our plough-to-pint ethos, and have ensured that we have gained listings on the back of it.
Working with The Food and Drink hub has been a fantastic experience, and has really helped us gain traction where it would otherwise be extremely difficult. Ease of doing business is the key, from being set up to supply, to the order process and through to deliveries. There is no doubt that The Food and Drink hub have helped many small suppliers throughout Scotland to grow their businesses.
It’s been great developing our business alongside The Food and Drink Hub over the past few years. We have a good working relationship with Steve Wallace and the team at The Food and Drink Hub. Without any shadow of a doubt the support, passion, advice and knowledge that they have under their belts, has gained us significant listings with Coop and Morrison’s to name but a few. This partnership has not only gained us access to new markets but has also significantly helped to raise the profile of our brewery and our brands.
I have worked with James and Steve at the Food and Drink Hub for over 4 years and it has been a very fruitful relationship. They are very professional and have considerable in-depth knowledge of the retail trade, which has enabled them to win new customers and develop new customers over this period. My brands have performed well with their customers, and we have developed a close and friendly working relationship, which I value.
Over the past year, The Food and Drink Hub have become one of our Top 10 customers from a virtually standing start. This is as a result of working together on a number of on-trade and off-trade opportunities within the Scottish craft beer sector. We look forward to growing our respective business through 2018 and beyond
Mackie’s Crisps have been delighted to work with The Food and Drink Hub over the past couple of years in growing our brand together. During 2017 we saw a 79% increase in sales by working closely with their team.
