Lawrence Mason and Nick Crispini Nick Crispini
UK
A terrific twosome making award-winning, natural Tonic Water that's taken the Gin world by storm
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Lawrence and Nick are the brains behind Bermondsey Mixer Co and your brand-new artisan Tonic Water, which they launched after struggling to find a mixer to match the quality gins and cocktails they served at their trendy London bar. Lawrence says, “There were literally 100s of Gins from distilleries from all corners of the globe, all using exciting and innovative flavour profiles and distillation methods. Unfortunately for us, the same could not be said for the Tonic Waters…”
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After countless hours of experiments, the guys managed to create a next-level Tonic Water that used natural ingredients instead of the bitter chemical extracts you find in commercial tonics. It was a smash-hit success and a couple years later they went all-in, starting their very own artisan Mixer business.
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In the years since, Bermondsey Tonic Waters have garnered rave reviews, won multiple medals at the Great Taste Awards, and are now enjoyed by G&T-lovers all over the globe. It’s still a fairly small operation at the moment but Lawrence and Nick hope with your support they can scale up the business and make even more top-quality mixers for the world to enjoy.
Vineyard Location
Lawrence Mason and Nick Crispini Nick Crispini's Story
Lawrence and Nick's Story
In early 2013, Nick Crispini, opened 214 Gin & Cocktail bar. As the manager in the bar at the time myself and Nick were blown away by the diversity and complexity on show in the Gin category. There were literally 100's of Gins from distilleries from all corners of the globe, all using exciting and innovative flavour profiles and distillation methods. Unfortunately for us, the same could not be said for the Tonic Waters available to us. They were all fine but all a bit boring and were certainly not representative of the craft and provenance so evident in the gin category.
We became obsessed with the idea of hand making raw and natural tonic water for our bar. Initially, we made a natural tonic syrup that was to be carbonated using a sodastream for every gin and tonic we served. An injection of theatre to this most classic of cocktails.
The key difference with our products is that we use Quinine, in its raw and natural form & not, like all commercial tonic waters do, in its processed form. Quinine comes from the bark of a South American tree (Cinchona) and we use this very bark, some water and a bit of heat to extract the quinine naturally rather than using solvents or chemicals to speed up the process. Bermondsey Tonic Water has a beautiful amber hue from the bark whereas commercial tonic waters will be transparent, a sign of the processed extraction. You can taste the difference.
Going all-in on mixers
We started making tonic water in 2013 and launched our brand sometime in 2015. We created Bermondsey Mixer Co quite simply through a desire for better tonic water for our bar. From day one we have not employed a sales team or marketing budget. People discover our brand organically through the very desire in which we originally crafted it.
I never get bored explaining how the adventure all started and what sets us apart from other tonic water brands. It is also incredibly humbling to have our product enjoyed all over the world in some very special locations.
Our Tonic is made using a raw and natural ingredient and a natural extraction process. Commercial tonic waters use solvent extracts of key ingredients. This is what sets us apart in the Tonic game.
Tales of joy or sorrow?
Wow. There are too many to count. Lot's of peaks and troughs.
There were many 1000s of hours spent experimenting with filtration methods. Some more successful than others and occasional disasters when things didn't work out.
But with regards to joyous moments, and this may sound trite, anytime we get an organic sale from a customer who has tried our product elsewhere and wants to stock us, it feels great. From being stocked on Ocado to being picked up by a local deli or picking up a brand new exporter or selling a few bottles through our website every sale feels like a massive win because we haven't had to twist anybody's arm.
Coming through the pandemic stronger than we were in early 2020 is something that at this current moment feels memorable for all the right reasons.
We are still a very lean operation with only one full time member of staff. We would love to build a small team to take care of production and logistics so that we can grow the brand.
