OUR ORIGINS

Ever wonder what might happen if you turned your garage into a distillery? Well, Slake is living that dream.

Over a decade ago now, we turned our Grandad’s beloved wood-work hideaway into SlakeHQ, the perfect testbed for our wild inspired recipes. From these humble beginnings, a journey connecting communities, science and nature began.

Fighting every day to make the spirit world a little less boring, Slake brings you unique foraged flavours for the taste adventurers and spirit enthusiasts among us. Challenging your palate and connecting you more deeply with nature one sip at a time.

Our spirits are meticulously developed and produced by a doctor (no, not that type of doctor), this one’s big into chemistry and how to use his skills to showcase and celebrate the best of wild Sussex flavours.

WHAT IS SLAKE?

Slake is an independent distillery on the South Coast of England, situated in Worthing between the South Downs National Park and the Sea; a beautiful part of West Sussex, which has a historically deep connection with nature, Sussex folklore, and in more recent times, smuggling 'free-traders' and a proud market gardening heritage.

A short trip over the Downs brings us into the Weald, home to ancient Sussex woodland and unique natural heathland habitat. Inspired by the natural diversity of our locality and the fantastic ingredients we have around us we hand-craft quality spirits, distilled at the crossroads of science & nature.

WHAT'S WITH THE DRAGON?

His name is Slake and he’s an insatiable Knucker - an infamous water serpent, said to be found across Sussex, residing in Knuckerholes & devouring unsuspecting sheep and farmhands alike. Despite the many folktales, most of the Knuckerholes left across Sussex are long overgrown, neglected or buried underground and built upon by overzealous Victorian engineers and developers! Perhaps nature needs a fearsome Knucker as an ally now more than ever? Well, even if many people have forgotten them, we still like to tell Knuckertales about the water serpent guardians who can help protect our chalk aquifers and the life-sustaining water that resides in them...

But for us, dragons and mythological beasts also represent the unknown, once marked on maps to warn wary travellers, they now hark back to times of adventure and discovery.

In an interconnected and global world you could be forgiven for thinking that the time of exploration has passed us by, but the natural world still has many mysteries to divulge if we're willing to seek them out. Learning to live local, how to thrive not just survive and seek unity with nature. This is our frontier.

THE LIVING COAST

Both people & place are so important to our process. Unearthing & celebrating the unique biocultural heritage of Sussex by the Sea & The Living Coast UNESCO biosphere region, where the distillery began, is what sets us apart and how we continue to create spirits of character. In freezing February 2021 we filmed this short movie about The Living Coast and what living & working in a UNESCO biosphere region means to us.

WHAT DRIVES US?

Everything takes place at SlakeHQ – from maceration to bottling, from development to distillation, batch by batch, we're hands on, completing the process from start to finish under one roof.

Our nature led & exploratory approach certainly has its challenges, but we believe it is also the reason why our spirits are so unique. For us, it is not just the best way, but the only way.

The yardstick we measure our success against is our customer, nothing gives us greater pleasure than hearing your feedback. But don't just take our word for it. Come & try something Slake for yourself! Search our events!

STILL WANT TO GET TO KNOW US BETTER?

Hop over to the blog where you can read more about our journey as an independent artisan distillery, find out how and why our spirit's are made the way they are, share our tasty experiments (the triumphant and otherwise), and our vision for an ethical local business that works with nature.

Any burning questions? Try our FAQs or drop us a line.