Feature: From Lockdown to Loveday

What happens when two former chefs and lifelong best friends turn their passion for spirits and sustainability into a disruptive distillery? Rosie Greenaway meets Daisy Hillier, co-founder of Loveday Distilling, to chat about organic rum, craft gin and the value of community.

Lockdown hit hospitality hard, as Daisy Hillier knows only too well. Once a chef at a garden kitchen in Cornwall, she’s as well versed in furloughs as she is in flavour. But while other chefs were twiddling their thumbs and sharpening their knives, Hillier was cooking up a plan to launch a distillery with her childhood best friend, Chloe Gillat, and change the narrative around spirits. 

A shared culture

Hillier (left) says their ‘arranged friendship’ was inevitable since birth (their parents were friends) and attributes much of their business success to their ‘shared culture’, their ability to speak in shorthand and their ‘complementary skill sets’ — Gillat with a flair for contemporary design, Hillier with a sophisticated palate.

“It’s like a relationship — you share the same goals and aspirations. There are a lot of things you understand that are unspoken. We’re able to move at quite a speedy pace with things because we have a shared understanding of each other. It works well.”  

Gillat had been travelling the west coast of Scotland, catering for charter guests aboard a 60-foot sailing boat. The nomadic lifestyle eventually lost its charm so when Hillier realized the cheffing world she loved so much was taking a toll on her body, the pair put their heads together. Creativity blossomed when lockdown hit; they spent time exploring how to turn a side interest into a commercial opportunity. “I was into fermentation, we both loved the cocktail world, both loved gin and rum,” explains Hillier. A unit became available in Falmouth and ‘relatively spontaneously’ they signed the lease. 

Foraged in Falmouth

Whilst the country went in and out of lockdown, their earliest spirits were born; first a gin, using locally foraged ingredients from the Cornish coastline, next a barrel-aged organic rum — each the product of Hillier’s patient refinement. “Gin’s really interesting because it’s just so broad and rum’s really cool because it’s fermented, so it’s really exciting.”

The product flew. “Falmouth Dry … was just so popular, it took off to a level we really weren’t expecting.”

Shaking up the spirits sector
Tired of outdated gender tropes, they set out to shake up the male-dominated spirit sector. “We’ve always wanted to be disruptive in a male space … to create a brand that looks and feels different because it’s created by women — by female chefs. You hear a lot about rum being a sailor’s drink, a bit of a boys’ club. For women, it’s gin o’clock. Often these brands are made and designed by men; they think we want pink or goldleaf. Actually, women respond really well to really classic, simple, timeless design. Loveday is very modern, clean, paired back.”

Equally important to how they operate is the environment, with every care taken to ‘tread lightly’ on the planet. With their rum certified organic and their gin soon to join it, Loveday also repurposes its post-production waste: smoked, boozy figs are sent across the road to Chocolarder for re-use in chocolate products; and rum dunder goes to a local regenerative farmer to use as pig feed.

Community is everything

Cornwall being the entrepreneurial hub it is, Loveday is well-supported by its community, which thrives on collaboration and heartily supports anything produced nearby. “I’ve found people really care about these two Cornish girls down the road, making a genuinely local product. They tell people about it because they’re excited that somebody’s doing it.”

Hillier speaks proudly of ‘interlinking’ with fellow small businesses, collaborating on workshops, tastings and open houses — it’s what sets Loveday apart. “You’re all there supporting each other. There are quite a few other brands that we work with — tonic, vermouth, chocolate, coffee. We did a Women in Coffee event with Yallah, up the road, where we made a signature cocktail from their female-produced coffee waste. It was really interesting listening to them talk about what it’s like to be a woman in the coffee world.”

Mindful consumption

Although ‘mindful drinking’ isn’t a term Hillier often hears in Falmouth, it’s a trend which evident among her customers. “We talk all the time about drinking less but better. At our events, people only have a couple; they come for the atmosphere and a bit of food. In cocktails, people are leaning towards lower alcohol. I’m working on some nice alcohol-free serves for the taproom. It’s a fun experiment.”

Loveday’s aromatic Golden Hour gin is well suited to the ‘less but better’ drinker. “People are definitely choosing to drink higher quality. People are so into flavour now and they want something cool, where they can connect with the brand. I think people do see alcohol now as more of a treat than an everyday thing. Brands like ours really appeal to those sorts of drinkers.”  

With B Corp certification on the horizon and a busy events schedule, Loveday’s all-weather distillery and taproom promises to be a hive of activity this summer; as loyal fans flock to sample the latest flavour-first creations and refill their empty spirits bottles, Loveday Distilling will keep delivering the disruptive, sustainable spirits for which it is quickly becoming known.  

 By Rosie Greenaway, editor