a story with Edmunds
We spoke to Tom, co-founder of Edmunds cocktails to find out the Edmunds story, the future of Edmunds and his favourite song too!
What’s the Edmunds story?
We started the company in 2019 to help bars and restaurants serve great quality cocktails quickly and easily, without compromising on taste or presentation. It started with myself and my brother Paul, and we now have a team of 6 people working full time. This includes Paul’s fiance, our dad and a couple of really close friends. We’ve been extremely lucky with friends and family chipping in as much as possible.
I’d spent a lot of time working with brands like Bacardi, Bombay Sapphire, Grey Goose, Patron, Jack Daniels (and tonnes more!) helping them develop cocktail menus and training staff.
Traditionally cocktails require a lot of ingredients and time to make and prepare – they can be quite tricky for bars to execute properly. That’s really why Edmunds was born, from the idea that there must be a simpler solution.
After a lot of research and testing (it was tough, but someone had to do it!) we came up with what we think are some great tasting cocktails that can be made in less than 30 seconds. We’re confident they taste just as good as anything made from scratch behind the bar.
What’s next for Edmunds?
Our main focus right now is just getting the cocktails into as many hands as possible! We love to see and hear people enjoying them, there’s some really pinch me moments when we see some of the pictures we are sent. They seem to be incredibly popular as wedding favours.
We’ve also got a collection of exciting new limited editions in the pipeline, in collaboration with some other great brands. A Kumquat Liqueur is next on the menu! And another really exciting cocktail with a company about 20 minutes from us – but I can’t say anymore on that just yet.
What makes Edmunds unique?
Our core focus has always been ensuring every cocktail tastes just as it would do if made from scratch. We only use the best ingredients we can source and every cocktail is made with the same methodology it would be from a bar. There are no artificial flavours or colours – for example, the mojito infuses fresh mint for over 8 hours.
They all have a double measure (50ml) of spirit, so in our 100ml single-serve bottle that’s 50% of the drink! When that much of a drink is alcohol you can’t substitute a quality spirit for a cheaper alternative! We didn’t want to make a drink that tastes like a cocktail, we want to make a cocktail and put it in a bottle.
What’s your favourite drink from the collection?
I have to say the new Kumquat Margarita is my favourite, Espresso Martini is a close second! We’ve spent a lot of time making sure you still get the perfect créme once you’ve shaken it, it’s probably the one we are most proud of.
What’s your inspiration?
In East Anglia there’s such a great local food and drink scene, and in Bury St Edmunds we’re lucky enough to have a weekly market that showcases a lot of these. It’s also not just about creating cocktails, but about getting to work with others related to us in the region. Whether that’s working with our whisky and gin suppliers (English Whisky Distillery and Suffolk Distillery) or supporting the pubs, bars and shops that are selling the cocktails. We all just love being part of that wider community.
Favourite song and why?
LCD Soundsystem – All My Friends. A real ‘feel food’ song about sharing great times with your closest friends!
Can you tell us about the ‘plant a tree’ scheme you do and anything else that might be really interesting.
We’ve always been very conscious of our impact on the environment and the steps we can take to keep any negative contributions to a minimum. We’ve partnered with a company called Ecologi to plant a tree for every single box of cocktails (or 1L bottle) that we sell. We’ve managed to plant over 40,000 trees in the past 18 months and aim to have planted over 100,000 by the end of 2022.