What we’ll be drinking this winter: wild Scottish syrups to shake up your cocktails
The season of cosy nights in is officially back. With Bake Off back, Strictly in full swing and The Traitors: Celebrity heating up, our evenings are feeling longer — and a good drink feels essential. If you’re ready to swap summer spritzes for something a little richer, Highland Boundary’s new syrup collection is the upgrade your bar cart needs.
Scotland’s award-winning wild distillery has just launched five botanical syrups made from hand-foraged flora and UK sugar beets. They’re designed to make cocktails, mocktails or even desserts feel luxe, with flavours that sound like they’ve been plucked straight from the forest floor.
The flavours
- Scots Pine – Scotland’s national tree, bottled. Creamy, toffee-apple and lightly smoky with a citrus edge.
- Gorse – golden marzipan with a hit of fresh meadow.
- Honeysuckle – honeyed and floral — perfect in prosecco.
- Rosebay – pink, punchy and pomegranate-like.
- Scots Pine Mugolio – the star: aged for over a year, dark, smoky and citrusy. Made for Old Fashioneds.
Highland Boundary founder Marian Bruce describes the range as a way to share the beauty of Scotland’s wilderness: “We want people to enjoy the botanicals we forage around our distillery, whether they drink alcohol or not.”
How we’ll be drinking them
Cosy nights on the sofa call for rosebay spritzes topped with soda, honeysuckle syrup drizzled over ice cream, and Mugolio Old Fashioneds stirred slowly while the credits roll. Even if you’re keeping things alcohol-free, these syrups turn sparkling water into something that feels properly grown-up.
Highland Boundary Wild Botanical Syrups (£9 / 250ml; Mugolio £25 / 200ml) are available now at highlandboundary.com and farm shops and delis across Scotland.
