Birch Premium Botanical Vodka, the flagship product of wild spirits producer Buck & Birch, has been recognised as Scotland’s most innovative food and drink product.
Judges at the annual ScotHot event hailed the spirit as a “true pioneer” in the Scottish food and drink scene, presenting Buck & Birch’s commercial director Colin Logan and co-founder Tom Chisolm with a Gold Award for Innovation at the end of the two-day event (26-27 February).
Chisolm and his co-founder Rupert Waites are the entrepreneurs behind Buck & Birch, setting up the business to make drinks that use ingredients found growing wild. They created Birch vodka using birch sap, which is harvested every spring from Scottish birch trees grown in Buck & Birch’s partner community forests. As well as imparting a unique taste to the spirit, the harvesting also brings environmental and economic benefits to the brand’s woodland partners.
Buck & Birch was part of the East Lothian Food & Drink contingent attending this year’s ScotHot, an annual trade event for buyers in hospitality, food service, public sector, retail, leisure and tourism.
Following the win, Buck & Birch team welcomed MP for Lothian East and Minister of State for Business and Trade, the Rt Hon Mr Douglas Alexander to its MacMerry headquarters on 28 February. He joined the team for a tour of production facilities and a tasting of the range, followed by discussions of the company’s growth plans for 2025 and beyond.
