Norfolk’s favourite drinks revealed
Steph and Matt Brown, directors of Founding Drinks. Picture: DENISE BRADLEY - Credit: Copyright: Archant 2018
Norfolk's drinking habits have been revealed with industry experts sharing which tipples they believe are the county's favourite.
The Founding Drinks selection, including the new rosa gin. Picture: Founding Drinks - Credit: Founding Drinks
Recently published figures show that 29% of people in the East of England claim beer is their favourite drink with a further 29% saying over the past decade they have started to experiment more with their choices.
On top of this, Norfolk millennials are three times more likely than people aged over 55 to choose outside the norm when deciding their poison,
But the county's 'gindustry' is also booming – with the UK's market exporting gin to the value of £600m in 2018 – its highest turnover to date.
Steph and Matt Brown are one of the many entrepreneurs who entered the market during the 'gin boom' three years ago.
However, the Beachemwell-based company – Founding Drinks – entered the market with a vodka.
'We were going to really lovely bars and pitching it to them. And they just kept saying 'Thank goodness it's not another gin'. It was such a saturated market for the demand there was,' Mr Brown said.
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But as demand steadily increased – resulting in a 15% year-on-year rise in sales across the industry – the pair diversified into gin.
'We were making our Wild Knight vodka so we decided to use it as the base for our gin. We started with the original Boadicea which launched in June last year,' Mrs Brown said.
'It went down so well that by Christmas we had launched a winter gin with winter spices, and this month we're launching a pink gin,' she continued.
The company's new rosa gin will be launched on March 23 in retailers such as Norwich's Jarrold, The English Whisky company and the Norfolk Deli.
It is also launching an 'intense' gin later in the year.
Mrs Brown said she believed gin was the perfect spirit to keep up with drinking trends because it could be diversified so easily.
However, Mr Brown said that rum would be the next big growth area for the industry.
'People have been telling me for about three years that rum is going to be the next big thing,' said Mr Brown.
'If or when that happens, we've been distilling some and will be ready.'
