Christmas calls for cocktails. Alice Ryan raises a glass to three local-hero drinks brands, all of which deliver top-notch cocktails direct to your door

Edmunds Cocktails

Named after its birthplace, Bury St Edmunds, Edmunds Cocktails is the brainchild of brothers Tom and Paul Mayes. With the cast of Made in Chelsea among the brand’s celebrity fans, it has been featured in GQ, Forbes and the Evening Standard since launching in 2019. Tom shares his mixology secrets

On Christmas Day. . . I'll be drinking our limited edition Gingerbread Espresso Martini. Christmas can be a long day and the kick of real coffee will hopefully keep me from having the traditional post-lunch nap!

How it started. . . I've worked in cocktail bars since I was 18 and always loved learning about mixology. I then worked for some great spirits brands - including Grey Goose, Bombay Sapphire and Bacardi - helping bars develop their cocktail menus and training staff.

Bars face a lot of challenges if they want an extensive cocktail menu, so I started working on a solution to make it as simple as possible for them. The focus had to be making perfect cocktails quickly, easily and consistently without sacrificing on quality or taste.

I started developing the recipes at the beginning of 2019 and we made our very first sale to a local pub in October 2019.

The drinks list. . . We decided to focus on getting the classics perfect to begin with, launching with eight of the most recognised cocktails in the country. We've since grown the range to 12, with a few that you're less likely to have tried before, like our Kumquat Margarita.

In the mix. . . The focus has always been on creating the best cocktail possible, without exception. The ingredients that go into every bottle are what make this possible!

Our spirits partners include Sapling Vodka, The English Whisky Company, Suffolk Distillery and El Rayo Tequila. This is what sets us apart from most canned or bottled cocktails that you might find in a supermarket.

For Christmas. . . I'd definitely recommend going for a mixed box of six from our site. It's fully customisable, so you can pick six cocktails from our range of 12, making it a little more personal. You can also choose a hand written gift note free of charge.

The reward. . . The biggest reward is getting to see our cocktails being served in some of the country’s most prestigious venues. It still feels strange to think that on any given day our cocktails are being served at a wedding in Cornwall, or at a 21st birthday party somewhere in Scotland.

For more information and to order, go to edmundscocktails.co.uk

Roundwood Gin

Having won numerous plaudits for their London Dry, made in extra-small batches at their Cambridgeshire barn distillery, Emily Robertson and Rupert Waters of Roundwood Gin decided to launch mix-your-own cocktail kits. Emily tells the story

On Christmas Day. . . A drop of homemade sloe gin in your glass of champers goes down particularly well!

How it started. . . My husband Rupert and I set up Roundwood in 2018. It’s named after our neighbouring woodland, Wennington Wood in Cambridgeshire: with our house one side, the distillery the other and no footpaths within, as a family we spend our lives going round and round! We take inspiration from our rural surroundings for our recipe and branding. Our beautiful blue bottles mirror the woodland with botanical illustrations and hidden British wildlife. Lovingly distilled in extra-small batches, by us in our converted barn distillery, we are proud to now have several awards to our name.

The gin. . . Our London Dry Gin is an uncomplicated blend of seven carefully-selected botanicals, including elderberries for a fruity twist on a classic dry recipe. You may detect plenty of zesty orange flavours, bursts of berry and delicate notes of elderflower, tasting as good as it looks. It packs tons of flavour, is sippably smooth and extremely drinkable!

Mixing it up. . . We’ve never been ones for super-flavoured, glittery, colour-changing “gin”, but are always looking at ways to enjoy our London Dry as an alternative to a G&T - also delicious by the way! We wanted to make it as easy as possible to mix up some of our favourite recipes at home, so created our boxes with everything you’d need, including the garnish.

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On the menu. . . Each box makes four delicious drinks and we’ve got three cocktail options available. St Clements Cooler, as you’d expect super citrussy with a hint of honey; Garden Collins, the winning combo of elderflower liqueur and lime; and Apricot & Raspberry Bramble, a twist on the original Bramble, just as delicious.

For Christmas. . . If you’re looking for a gift to accompany one of our cocktail kits, we also stock several beautiful copper bar pieces – pourers, jiggers, bottle openers and shakers.

The reward. . . We have ready-made gifts suitable for birthdays, Christmas, Mother’s Day, anniversaries, you name it. Our families are probably rolling their eyes as they unwrap their 25th bottle of Roundwood! Joking aside, with so much effort going into producing each and every bottle, the reward comes from seeing others enjoying the results.

Find the online shop at roundwooddistillery.co.uk

Niche Cocktails

Founded just pre-pandemic, Niche Cocktails has fast made a name for its classic-with-a-twist ready-mixed drinks, all made at its Suffolk HQ. As the brand’s Lauren Deal explains, Niche brings barman-quality cocktails direct to your doorstep

On Christmas Day. . . Nothing says festive like some fizz! So I will definitely be stocking up on our Pink Grapefruit Gin Fizz for Christmas Day. It’s a refreshing drink which means it can be enjoyed from Christmas morning right through to the evening!

How it started. . . As a team of food and drink enthusiasts, we couldn’t understand why, as the craft beer and gin industry promoted quality ingredients, cocktails were moving in the opposite direction - cheap, sugary concoctions that do not resemble the cocktail they were inspired by.

We set to right these problems and offer something different: a range of premium-strength canned cocktails, packed full of flavour, with no artificial ingredients which could be served in under 30 seconds.

The drinks list. . . We wanted our core range to feature timeless classic cocktails, with our Niche twist. We took inspiration from the cocktails that have remained popular choices in the UK in recent years. We’ve just added our own flavours to the classic recipes to offer something unique.

In the mix. . . All of our cocktails are made with premium, all-natural ingredients with zero artificial flavours or additives. We certainly don’t skimp on the alcohol content, with each recipe having an ABV of 8-12% (twice as strong as many canned cocktails on shop shelves).

Flavour is fundamental with our cocktails, which is why we choose top quality ingredients for our drinks. Whether it’s the Brazilian lime used in our Margarita, or the manuka honey used in our Whisky Sour, you can be sure we’ve sourced the very best ingredients.

For Christmas. . . The Niche variety pack is a fantastic option! Available in six,12 or 24-can options, it contains a pre-mixed selection of our most popular cocktails, so will surely delight the cocktail fan in your life.

The reward. . . Changing people’s perceptions of ready-to-drink cocktails is incredibly rewarding. Hearing from our customers that our cocktails taste as good as ones they’ve had freshly made in a bar never gets old!

To see and shop the full drinks list, visit nichecocktails.co.uk