Mountain

Wormwood is what keeps this from sliding into soft drink territory. Mountain is the fruit-forward, aromatic member of the Everleaf trio, and the sweetness gets checked hard on the way out. Cherry blossom leads with an almondy note, wild strawberries and cherries fill the middle with something rich and jammy, then rosehip and wormwood pull the finish tart and sharp. It is the most immediately likeable of the three and still bitter enough to read as a proper aperitif rather than a cordial. The serve the brand builds it around is a Cherry Blossom Spritz: 50ml over ice, 150ml light tonic, sliced strawberries dropped in. The base is water, sugar, acacia gum, carrageenan and natural botanical distillates and extracts, bottled at 50cl. It comes out of a small London operation that spent over a year dehydrating, macerating and extracting plants before landing on the recipes.