Our Aims

Linden Leaf organic spirits and essences are crafted and tuned at the molecular level. We strive to find amazing new taste experiences by bringing together the traditional craft of distillation with state-of-the-art technology.

In what is becoming a crowded market, we aim to make some of the tastiest, most interesting spirits you can find. We offer spirits which are incredible served neat on ice, taste great with mixers and can make the most amazing cocktails. 

We also produce a range of Single Note essences, each showcasing a particular flavour or ingredient which we feel deserves a bottle to itself.

All of our products meet the stringent requirements for organic certification by the Soil Association. We believe in supporting organic farmers and producers: not only because of their ideals but also because they often make the highest quality produce.

Beginnings

The three of us are Cambridge scientists and engineers with a passion for food and drink. All of us are avid cooks with a real love for ingredients and innovative cooking methods. For many years we had been discussing the science behind extracting tastes and smells.

One evening over a gin and tonic, we were talking about how molecular gastronomy has revolutionised taste combinations in food. This started us thinking about how to make better extracts from herbs, spices, fruit and vegetables.

Could you separate each ingredient into different flavour notes? Was there a way to understand how these notes could be combined harmoniously? We had a few ideas and so Linden Leaf began.

A Steep Learning Curve

We started by exploring ingredients and extraction methods, learning about flavour science and analysing our extracts molecule by molecule.

Our blends were initially led by our own noses and palates, and then honed through a major campaign of taste testings with our friends, and their friends, and their friends, and probably even some of their friends, too. With backgrounds in Big Data, please forgive us for being nerds when it comes to testing and analysis.

A big “thank you!” to everyone who gave us so much help with the taste testing.

We learned so much. How small changes in the extraction process can vastly alter the elements of flavour you pull out. How many unexpected things taste of orange. How some people think coriander tastes of soap. Oh, and how amazingly nasty some tonic waters taste.

About Us

Mukund

Mukund can’t make up his mind what he wants to do. The result is that he does far too many interesting things to list here. He met Matthew as an undergrad in Cambridge and through their PhDs they eventually came to like each other enough to set up a software company together. These days, Mukund spends a lot of his time travelling around the world tasting amazing things. He loves Linden Leaf as it is another great excuse for him to visit Japan so that he can find incredible new ingredients for us to use.

Matthew

Matthew is fortunately unique. He has been writing software commercially since he was far too young and he did his PhD in Astrophysics in the same year as Mukund in Cambridge. After that, he worked with Mukund in mathematical software before leaving to set up a Cambridge start-up fund with some of his other friends. He loves cooking, has a ridiculous collection of wines and spirits, and likes few things better than to stick his nose in some new extract of an exotic botanical.

Paul

Paul used to work for a very big company, running very big projects that did very clever things. One of these projects led to him working with Mukund and Matthew. Despite that, the project was a resounding success. After a while, Paul decided that smaller things might be even more fun, so he returned to Cambridge to play cricket on grass wickets again. He loves cooking complex dishes and is always adjusting the recipe to take it up a notch. With the new essences, he now claims to be able to get 2.5 notches.