Falmouth’s Loveday Distillery lands on Channel 5

A still named Mabel has taken a small Falmouth spirits maker from a kitchen-table experiment to national television, and the orders have not slowed down since.

Loveday Distillery is an independent, hospitality-first gin and rum distillery on the south coast of Cornwall. Since appearing on Channel 5’s A Year by the Sea, it has watched new customers find the brand from all over the country.

From a kitchen table to Channel 5

Founders Chloe and Daisy welcomed the cameras in to show what happens behind the label. That means botanicals foraged from the Cornish coastline, recipes tested and retested by hand, and Mabel, the still that turned an experiment at the kitchen table into one of Cornwall’s most distinctive independent spirits producers.

The episode went out on Channel 5’s A Year by the Sea, and it is available to watch on Channel 5 and My5. Since it aired, the new orders have kept on coming.

Orders from across the country

Loveday describes itself as small, independent and woman-owned, still based in Falmouth and still learning. The reaction to a few minutes of national airtime has been bigger than the founders expected.

“We loved sharing what we do with a wider audience,” said Chloe and Daisy. “The response has been wonderful, if a little overwhelming. We love what we do, and it’s brilliant seeing so many people want to come and try our gin and rum for themselves.”

Come and taste it for yourself

The distillery is open from 10 to 5, Monday to Friday, for anyone who wants to grab a bottle, have a taste and see what it is all about. Bottles are also available to buy online.

On Friday evenings the taproom runs from 5pm to 9pm, with no booking needed. And for the full story behind the bottle, Loveday runs tours and tastings that walk visitors through the botanicals, the process and the flavours that ended up on national television.

They remain a small, independent, woman-owned operation, still based in Cornwall, still learning, and, as they put it, still happiest when the distillery is full of friends old and new.