HUGO Morrissey set up his botanical-based drinks business after being inspired by his childhood spent making nettle cordial with his mother in the Cotswolds. Now living in Edinburgh, Morrissey hopes to change the status of nettles as invasive weeds towards plants which can be championed. Nuisance Drinks will also donate 1% of profits to Rewilding Britain.
Name: Hugo Morrissey
Position: Founder
WHAT IS THE BUSINESS CALLED?
Nuisance Drinks
WHERE IS IT BASED?
Edinburgh
WHY DID YOU SET UP THE BUSINESS?
I SPENT 4.5 years working in finance in London. I worked in sales and enjoyed it but I always wanted to start my own business. I didn’t want to get to 50 without having given it a shot. I love spending time in the outdoors. I grew up in the Cotswolds and grew up in a farmhouse. My mum is amazing at making drinks, jam and ice cream. She always made nettle cordial in the summer. I thought it would be an interesting concept as it uses a weed and very common British plant. It’s about turning an idea on its head and showing the value botanicals have. People are aware of eating and drinking natural food and drink. The pandemic has been great for supporting small businesses. People are turning their back on Amazon and seeing how badly affected small businesses have been by the pandemic. In Edinburgh this past year lots of companies are now supporting local products. Lots of small marketplaces have been approaching me.
HOW DOES IT WORK?
THE drink we currently have and have made over the past year is sparkling nettle pressé. I gathered nettles from the 6500 acre Hopetoun Estate near Edinburgh. At the end of last year I created 10,000 of those bottles and nearly sold out. I thought I couldn’t scale up this way so we have now redeveloped the recipe and converted bottles to cans. My biggest worry was foraging all the ingredients and scaling it up. We have foragers harvesting nettles for us. I will mainly work in sales and marketing and we have 40-50 events lined up for summer.
WHAT IS YOUR TARGET MARKET?
THE more sophisticated drinker. Those who enjoy gin and cocktails and want to try something new. There are lots of tonics and a limited amount of other mixers. The age would be 35-55-year-olds, middle class people, vegans, those who love the countryside and foragers. It will appeal to them. I would liken it to kombucha (but not necessarily with the health benefits). Nettles are very nutritious – they are an antihistamine and contain iron and magnesium – and all the drinks are low in sugar too.
There are two sides to people. I’m very adventurous but some people refuse to try it. The flavour is close to gooseberries, elderflower and apple but it’s drier than an elderflower and not as sweet. We are doing lots of farmers markets in Perth. We managed to get five stockists but we held back on how much we could sell until we got new flavours.
HOW IS IT DIFFERENT FROM COMPETING BUSINESSES?
THERE is one company I found doing a nettle cordial but they have a big range of drinks so didn’t put much thought into it. Hopefully it will have a nice story behind it which most brands don’t. If I see a drink in a supermarket and I don’t recognise an ingredient I probably wouldn’t pick it up. People know what nettle is and it encourages curiosity among them. The brand champions the countryside.
IS SCOTLAND A GOOD PLACE FOR THIS TYPE OF BUSINESS?
THE Scottish countryside is incredible and lots of people really appreciate that. We can translate that through our brand. I have lots of friends in London doing similar things. It’s a saturated market down there for start-ups. There’s a support network here that London doesn’t really have. Restaurants, cafes and bars here will always favour a Scottish product over one from the rest of the UK.
WHERE DO YOU HOPE THE BUSINESS WILL BE IN 10 YEARS?
I’D love to get to a point where you go into every bar or restaurant in the UK and our drink is on the shelf. I’d like to see it outside the UK as well. We’ve seen the gin market explode. Double Dutch and Fever Tree have done very well but the mixer market is very tonic-oriented. There’s scope for more mixers.
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