The Little Red Berry Co

I've been working with a fantastic local company; The Little Red Berry Co.

Based in Ripon, North Yorkshire, the company was set up by Rachel Jamieson in 2011. Their products are handmade, local, fresh, and they believe in putting a modern twist on a traditional product.


Rachel kindly sent me some of their incredible products to sample, and to use in some new recipes that I have been working on! I have to say - the liqueurs are absolutely divine. Fruity, moreish, and honest flavours that I really had to discipline myself with - it was highly tempting just to guzzle them rather than experiment in the kitchen!

Here are the recipes I developed, and below you'll find an interview with Rachel herself - a veritable gin goddess!

Raspberry Gin Pixie Cakes - made with Little Red Berry Raspberry Gin
Naughty Rhubarb Fool - made with Little Red Berry Rhubarb Vodka
Boozy Strawberry Smoothie - made with Little Red Berry Strawberry Vodka

L xx

An interview with Rachel Jamieson

What inspired you to start up?

I trained and worked in the hospitality from the age of 16, going to catering college before getting a 2:1 in International Hospitality Management from Oxford Brookes University, the degree included working in Canada for 12 months in a 5 star hotel.

Following that I paved out a career in Events management working for Alnwick Castle, Alnwick Gardens and Bettys and Taylors of Harrogate.

After 5 years running events and weddings I decided it wasn’t for me, I had always enjoyed cooking and working with local produce but never fancied the hours of working in kitchens. My husband and I used to make Raspberry Gin for gifts and one day after a bad week at work, I woke up and by 6pm I had come up with my business, found a brand designer and resigned from my job as an event manager. A bit risky but 4 and a half years later I think we can say it paid off.

What makes your range so special?

We try to put a modern twist on our products, we realise that many people like to make their own Sloe Gin and for them it’s a ritual that they do every year and open a bottle at Christmas time.

We’re not trying to claim our product is made in a different way, in fact we make our products in a similar way to traditional sloe gin making, just in larger batches and we try to be creative in the flavours we produce and the way our liqueurs can be used.

Our flavoured gins are our newest addition and these are made slightly differently and don’t contain as much sugar as the liqueurs.

We work really closely with local Yorkshire suppliers and fruit farmers and all our batches are handmade and hand bottled.

What has been your journey so far?

After I decided to leave work in the event industry, I found someone to create The Little Red Berry Co brand and took the first 4 flavours along to Otley Agricultural show in May 2011 giving out free samples to gather customer opinions.

We had a Yes and No bin for disposing of the empty samples. Yes being, make these for customers and No being, go back to work!

Luckily for me, the public loved the flavours and by December 2011 we were booked into a number of Christmas fairs. We now supply approximately 30 farm shops and delis, attend approximately 40 food shows a year and sell on 3 online outlets including Notonthehighstreet.com.

What food & drink trends do you love and hate?

Naturally we love the gin resurgence and how people are experimenting with drinks and I love good handmade food, especially breads, sausages and cheese, I think these are a fashion that will never die.

I hate the reinvention of cupcakes, when I was a child these were call buns and it was the first thing many children learnt to make with their mums in the kitchen. Then they were re named with the American term cupcakes and since then there seems to be all kinds of reinventions, whoopie cakes and cake pops to name a couple. I think a good old fashioned bun or sponge cake is fine! (Hope Rachel approves of my pixie cake recipe!)

What are your plans for the future?

Competition is tough in the drinks industry in 2016, so we never like to give away too many of our plans. Sometimes we think of ideas and sit on them for a while, other times we think of something and we just know its right and get it to market straight away. I’ve always trusted my gut instinct, so try to follow that as much as possible.

We hope to launch another new flavoured gin this year and then who knows, it sometimes depends what mood I’m in on a Monday morning!

How do you source your ingredients?

We work really closely with local fruit farmers and suppliers and we go to visit them at their premises and collect the fruit ourselves, that way we can make sure we are getting exactly what we need to produce our drinks.

What is your favourite tipple, and why?

Our Elderflower & Cucumber flavoured Gin is my current favourite, it took us ages to get it to market as we kept drinking all the test batches.

What is important to you, food/drink-wise?

It’s important that ingredients are sourced well and that there is a growing support for British food and its producers. After all, we are an island and one day we might need all our food producers. I’m the daughter of a British cattle farmer so provenance has always been instilled in me from a young age. My parents would and still always use the local butcher and baker.

Perhaps it stems from the ‘Dig for Victory’ campaign during the war, but Britain is great at producing good food and that should be celebrated.

And finally, what is the one food/drink you couldn’t live without?

Can I have two? Probably chocolate and cheese! Although not a chocolate cheese, I never think sweet cheeses work well!