Loveday started in lockdown - when the world stopped, we (childhood-friends-turned-chefs) decided to see if we could make a gin that tasted like the place we lived.

"Distilling: its just like cooking, right?" we said merrily, as we bought a 1L still, and set it up in the kitchen. 
 
Friends, it was not 'just like cooking'. Think more: trial and error. Promising batches, and batches that were truly terrible.
 
Tasting notes were shared on Zoom, verdicts debated in WhatsApp, and small sample bottles were dropped on each other’s doorsteps along with the sourdough starters.
 
It wasn’t quick. By batch 63, we finally had a recipe that made us all stop and say: “this is it.” That recipe became Falmouth Dry Gin - our first release, and still one of our bestsellers today.
 
What a delightfully surreal thing to look back on. From painstakingly bottling and sending out the first batch in May 2021, to sending out thousands of bottles a year, the chaos of those early days has never really left us - in a good way. Every bottle still carries that same energy: curious, joyful, and made the long way round. Use this as a starter, and expand into a longer origin story piece that i can use on our website using all the info you know about our brand story.

From kitchen table to distillery floor

The early days weren’t glamorous. Between recipe testing, we were wading through licence applications, HMRC paperwork, and more red tape than we thought possible. Eventually, permission came through, and we moved into our very first distillery space.

That’s where Mabel, our still, arrived- a big-bellied, gleaming beaut of a stil- still the unsung hero of Loveday. With her, things suddenly felt real. We weren’t just experimenting anymore.

The first bottle on the shelf

We’ll never forget the day we saw our bottles lined up for sale at Bailey’s Farm Shop in Penryn. Until then, our gin had been passed between friends, family, and neighbours. But there, on an actual shelf, in an actual shop, our chaotic project looked like the real deal.

That moment still sticks with us -and in some ways, we’re still chasing that feeling every time we release a new batch.

A craft-first way of making

From the beginning, we’ve kept our approach simple:

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  Small-batch spirits, distilled with creativity and care. And armfuls of fresh botanicals.
  
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  Hands-on production - every bottle filled, labelled, and hand finished
  
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  All-natural ingredients, because flavour should never need artificial help.
  
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  Sustainable choices wherever we can - from compostable packaging to organic ingredients.
  

It’s the long way round, but it’s the only way that feels right.

Then came the rest

Falmouth Dry might have been our first release, but it wasn’t our last. Since then, we’ve developed gins that celebrate Cornwall’s coastline and seasons, alongside small-batch rums that are organically made and barrel-aged here in Falmouth.

We’ve opened our distillery doors to tastings and a taproom, shared countless cocktails with our community, and sent bottles across the UK and internationally. Each one still carries that spark from the early days -curious, joyful, and made the long way round.

From then to now

From painstakingly bottling and sending out the first batch in May 2021 to now producing thousands of bottles a year, it still feels surreal to look back on how Loveday began.

We’re still a small, independent distillery, still woman-owned, still friends making spirits the way we believe they should be made. And every time we see someone pick up a bottle - whether it’s in a farm shop, a cocktail bar, or straight from our website - it feels just as exciting as that first shelf at Bailey’s.

The longer we do this and the more we talk to you all about it, the more sure we become that a good drink can and should be (delicious aside) about connection. A friend of our ours put it beautifully- The pleasure and possibilities of good people, doing good things, with a good drink.

Here's some recognition our spirits have picked up along the way that's made us grin proudly from ear to ear:

• An appearance on James Martin's Saturday Kitchen, in which Levi Roots said of our organic rum: "Wow... I REALLY like that" (A mum we've made it! moment)
• A Gold Outstanding, 98/100 award from The International Wine and Spirits Competition which is rare as hen's teeth from this revered industry body.
• Becoming the only British, Organic certified, made-from-scratch rum producer in the UK.
• Being picked as a Craft Gin Club gin of the month, which saw one of our gins land on 44,000 doorsteps in August 2023
• Achieving a full house of gold awards from the Taste of the West, and stars from The Great Taste Awards