The Still Spirited journey – from bakery ovens to distillery stills

Lockdown taught people a number of things in the world of work. For me, it showed that my skills as a baker were transferable, and I could use my passion for baking goods from scratch to enable me to go from bakery ovens to distillery stills.

I’d always fancied trying my hand at the distilling process and after lots of research, I set to work to create a vodka that would stand out from the crowd.

Sustainability has been key to our bakery produce for more than three decades so it was important to continue this ethos in the creation of Still Spirited, and only the finest locally sourced ingredients were used.

It was a lot of trial and error, and using my knowledge and understanding of how to combine different ingredients to create the smoothest spirit possible I set to work.

Wheat – a key ingredient in baking was mashed with water to form the basis of the drink, and next came the fermentation process, with yeast converting sugars into alcohol. 

This then led me to the intricate art of distillation, where the liquid is heated and the vapours captured, cooled and condensed to separate impurities, creating a purer, more refined spirit. 

The ironic part of the Still Spirited story is that I don’t actually drink! I run our family-business with my wife Katrina, and she was in charge of the tasting process to ensure the end product was of the highest quality possible. A lot of people associate vodka with a strong burning sensation after they drink them, but we are really proud of how extremely smooth the Still Spirited finished product is.

Batch-distilled at 40% ABV, our single malt vodka has hints of vanilla and toffee allowing people to sip and savour its taste simply on its own over ice. Once we were pleased with our new creation and confident there would be a demand for the drink, we had larger distilling facilities built at our bakery headquarters in Hatton to enable us to make batches of Still Spirited. 

It’s hard to believe how popular our drink has become in no time at all. For us, the proof of the pudding is the fantastic reviews Still Spirited has already gained from members of the public who have tried it. Feedback has been fantastic, with people reporting how clean and ‘moreish’ it is. We are really excited to have produced a vodka for the luxury drinks market from scratch in just three years and look forward to people joining us on the Still Spirited journey.