This festive season we wanted to share some of our Welsh Witch Magic with a Behind the Scenes view of our Wild Moon Distillery. Traditionally, the word ‘witch’ translates literally as ‘wise woman’, which is exactly what Wild Moon founder Jade is. A one-woman band, she plans, creates and bottles each potion by hand. The love and expertise is evident in the luxurious premium spirits she makes. Jade shares with us some knowledge of her processes, her ideas and some of her favourite parts in our Behind the Scenes dive into the Welsh Witch herself. Want to know how a great idea is brewed? Or what a witch’s favourite potion is to make? Keep on reading!
Welsh Witch magic: It starts with an idea
With our strong branding presence and identity as an educator on Welsh heritage, paganism and natural botanicals, Jade finds new ideas come easily. When it comes to thinking up a new idea for a spirit, looking at existing stories, folklore and history makes this a natural and organic process. Jade strives to educate people on the magic of Wales, witches and natural ingredients. With the Wheel of the Year collection in full-swing, this gives Jade a lot of inspiration for upcoming launches. She picks colours associated with the pagan sabbats, ingredients used in spells, finds inspiration in the sacred plants and flowers that are in season.
There is lots that witchcraft can offer us in terms of ideas, and is then interweaved with our products here at Wild Moon for authentic and earth-kind spirits that come from the soul.
The Welsh Witch serves to educate folk on the joy and history of Wales. For example, many Welsh people aren’t aware of the history of the ‘Bara brith’ – a Welsh tea loaf made with spices and currants, similar to a fruit cake. The traditional spices and flavours were the inspiration for our award-winning Welsh Witch Spiced Rum, with tangy citrus notes and earthy cinnamon ones in a golden elixir of sugar and spice. (P.S – we have a recipe for a Spiced Rum butter to pair with a bara brith if you fancy trying out a delicious new recipe!)
Behind the scenes: Brewing the potions
The Welsh Witch in her element preparing to brew a magic potion
Making the ideas a reality is one of the best parts for spirit artist Jade, who takes divine inspiration from her heritage and passions. Then, she turns it into a glorious premium spirit for all to enjoy. Once the planning process has come to an end, the fun can really begin. Finalising the plans and expectations, Jade sends her thoughts and ideas to the design team who create the beautiful Wild Moon bottle labels. From there, colours, designs and names are brewed to create a delectable shiny new masterpiece to adorn the apothecary bottles Welsh Witch spirits are housed in. Meanwhile, Jade sets to work on making the magic potions themselves. Her process is extremely intuitive and is a spiritual journey in itself. She uses crystals, lunar cycles and her Celtic pagan beliefs to organically find ingredients that work well together and celebrate the beauty of nature.
Making use of the award-winning Welsh gin as a base for the flavoured additions, Jade experiments with key ingredients to make the new product unique and true to the Welsh Witch philosophy: oozing with history, folklore and natural magic. The base gin itself is a delectable combination of earthy, spicy, citrusy and sweet, so its versatility is perfect for our Wheel of the Year spirits, which focus on each sabbat of the pagan wheel of the year.
Mythical maths and sacred science
Once a small batch has been distilled and tested for ABV and taste, the next stage can commence. The near-completion stage is one of the best parts for Jade: while she has self-confessed she’s not a mathematics whizz, she loves the scientific process of measuring the spirits at each stage and ensuring replication and accuracy in each small batch.
Now the potion has been rigorously tested for quality and delicious botanical flavours, it’s ready to be bottled, labelled, hand-corked and waxed, then off into the spirits market it goes. Ready to be enjoyed by flavour enthusiasts across the nation.
Number magic: the detailed process to make the perfect potions every time
The Welsh Witch’s favourites: process, product, workspace
When we asked Jade her favourite part of the creation process, she had to admit she adores coming up with new ideas and watching her plans come to fruition. Seeing her ideas come to life is the most rewarding part of it: that final stage in her distillery where the corks are in, the wax is on and the shiny labels are glimmering like little stars in the night sky. Jade prides herself on her natural abilities to identify excellent flavours and combinations; this makes the planning process even more exciting as she readies herself for magic to be made.
The product that is her favourite to make is the award-winning Spiced Rum; the black sheep amongst its sisters of gins. The rum being a slightly different process makes the creation that little bit more special and exciting. Plus, it’s hard to not get excited about creating a product that has recently won a gold award in the Spirits Business ‘Ultra-Premium’ Category! Jade feels so proud of her Spiced Rum, and her love and adoration is poured into every bottle of it: it’s her favourite product to drink and to make. So, if you haven’t tried it yet – what are you waiting for?!
Intuitive ideas and potions coming to life
Jade’s favourite ingredient changes, as she’s always coming up with new and innovative flavour ideas. Quite often, finding a new ingredient that works in an exciting way is a rewarding and inspiring moment in the distillery. So, choosing a favourite ingredient would be like picking a favourite child! She loves them all equally and they all contribute to Wild Moon differently in their unique ways.
In her distillery, Jade’s favourite part of her workspace is the bottling and labelling station. Which is understandable, seeing your hard work finally come to its final stage and ready to be sent out into the world. Adding the finishing touches and the final magic is where the Welsh Witch potions really come to life. No detail is overlooked in the distillery; hand-corked and dipped in coloured wax for that apothecary, natural feel before bespoke mystical labels are applied ready for admiration.
Can you imagine that first batch of new products growing from a seed of an idea into a fully-blossomed labelled potion ready for the markets?! No wonder it’s Jade’s favourite part!
The final stage: all of Jade’s hard work coming together as she labels and hand-waxes each bottle
The challenges of small batch distillation
Of course, as with any artisan process, there are always challenges along the way. Whether this is experimenting with different volumes of flavours, length of maturation or weight of ingredients, it keeps Jade on her toes. Everything is always a learning curve. Jade is always refining her process to keep delivering excellence (and keep winning awards!)
For example, the Welsh Witch Spiced Rum: while it’s Jade’s favourite product to make, it’s also the most difficult! During the first stages of creation, there was a lot of experimentation involved to get the clarity and colour perfect. This involves tweaking the weighting of ingredients or the length of maturation to ensure the taste is perfect without the spirit being cloudy. Since the launch of the first Welsh Witch spirit in 2019, there has been a lot of trial and error since then. If an ingredient is even a few grams out, it can change the taste of the entire batch. This is something Jade has learned to perfect in her distillation process over time.
And of course, being an artisanal business with spirits crafted in small batches, that is all part of the charm of buying from small artisanal companies. You know in each bottle a great deal of expertise, trial and error, love, sweat and tears has gone into the process of creating such a magic product.
Jade’s gentle process of bottling the distilled spirits in their apothecary-style bottles
We hope you’ve enjoyed our mystical journey into the mind of the Welsh Witch and how she brews her magic potions. If you’ve been inspired to try our premium spirits and elixirs, you can shop them here. Similarly, if you’d like to view our witch’s storecupboard, you can find candles and glasses to adorn your living space with.