Craft spirits start-up launches first drinks

By Lisa Riley

Published: 31 July, 2019

Craft spirits start-up Top Beverages has unveiled its first two products, tapping into two key growth categories - rum and gin.

Top Beverages’ first products to market are a CBD (cannabidiol) infused gin and CBD infused spiced rum, with another gin, among other spirits, to follow later in the summer - all launched under its brand one.

Distilled in Scotland, with each distillation creating no more than 500 bottles to ensure that each drop meets the company’s “rigorous and exacting standards”, the duo is navy strength (55% proof) and contains no artificial additives, flavourings or sweeteners.

The gin is distilled with juniper berries, coriander seeds, angelica root, orris root, elderflower, lemon peel, lime peel, a fresh Valencian orange and 1 mg of premium full spectrum CBD, while the rum is is spiced with cassia bark, orange peel, ginger, Indian vanilla pods and 10 mg of premium full spectrum CBD.

Founded in the UK in January this year by Saf Ali and Nicholas Pullen, Top Beverages said it was a pioneer in the spirits industry because of “marrying craftsmanship, elegance and CBD”.

“Top Beverages has been called the Prada of CBD craft spirits, and we think that is an apt comparison,” said Pullen. “We take our inspiration from high fashion as well as from the world of spirits. We begin with original, small batch and innovative spirits and then bottle each in elegant Italian glass. The end result is that we have a created a brand new marketplace that heretofore never existed.”

The new company would disrupt two “staid markets right now”, added Ali. “In the spirits and CBD world everything more or less looks and feels the same, or companies are simply chasing fads. We embrace classic ideas of simplicity and minimalism and combine them with elegance and artistry, because we know through personal experience that consumers are willing to pay for originality and true craft quality.”

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