Sunshine on Royal Deeside: Esker's Orange & Pomegranate Vodka
Royal Deeside isn't the first place you'd expect a burst of orange and pomegranate to come from — this is birch, pine and cold, clear river water, not citrus groves. But that's exactly the quiet trick Esker Spirits pulls off with their Orange & Pomegranate Vodka: a genuinely vibrant, fruit-forward spirit built on a distinctly Scottish base.
It starts, as all good Esker spirits do, with silver birch sap tapped locally in Royal Deeside — a subtle, faintly sweet backbone that most flavoured vodkas simply don't have. Onto that, the distillery layers real fruit: tangy pomegranate and sweet orange, worked in rather than just flavoured over, so what lands in the glass tastes like actual fruit rather than syrup. The result is properly moreish — tangerine segments up front, a light wash of vanilla underneath, and a flash of sharp, juicy pomegranate on the finish. Bottled at 40% ABV, it's smooth enough to sip neat over ice and characterful enough to hold its own in a proper cocktail.
That versatility is really the point. Keep it simple with soda and a wedge of orange for an easy, refreshing long drink, or let it take the lead in a pomegranate Cosmopolitan-style shake with fresh lime. It's also a genuinely useful bottle to have around for entertaining — flavoured, food-friendly, and interesting enough that it won't get lost next to the usual gin on the drinks table.
As a gift, it's an easy one to get right. It suits the vodka drinker who's bored of the plain stuff, the friend assembling a cocktail cabinet, or anyone who'd rather receive something small-batch and Scottish than another supermarket bottle. We've six on the shelf from this Royal Deeside distiller, so there's a little breathing room — but small-batch runs like this one don't tend to last.
