A field guide
Heat, light, oxygen, filtration and time — each step between harvest and glass changes what the finished drink contains.
A plant after harvest
A plant is at its most complete the moment it is harvested. From that point, everything that happens to it — time, heat, light, air, water, pressure — either carries its composition forward or takes something from it.
Processing is not a single event. It is a series of small decisions, and each one has a measurable effect on what the finished drink contains.
Heat
Heat is the most common tool in drink making: pasteurisation, concentration, reduction. It makes liquids safe and stable, and it also changes them.
Some plant compounds are robust under heat. Others — many of the vitamins and the more delicate aromatics among them — are measurably reduced by it. The higher the temperature and the longer the exposure, the greater the change.
Gentle handling is not a slogan. It is a decision about how much of the raw material you intend to keep.
Light and oxygen
Light and oxygen work more slowly than heat, but they work continuously. Many plant pigments and aromatic compounds oxidise on contact with air; others degrade under light.
This is why the container matters as much as the recipe. A clear bottle on a bright shelf is a processing step in itself — one that continues until the drink is opened.
Ebbor editions are filled into an opaque pouch precisely because it shields the liquid from light and limits oxygen, from the day it is made to the day it is poured.
Filtration and concentration
A perfectly clear drink has usually been filtered hard, and filtration removes more than sediment. Fine particles, fibres and the compounds bound to them are left behind in the filter.
Concentration — boiling water off to reduce volume — compounds the effect of heat, and what is later re-added is water, not what was lost.
A whole-plant drink accepts a little natural cloudiness as the price of keeping the plant together.
Time
Every week between harvest and glass is a week in which the plant's composition is changing. Long supply chains and long shelf lives are convenient, and they are also a form of processing.
This is why Ebbor works in small, finite editions made shortly after harvest, and why each edition's Plant Passport records what the finished liquid actually contained — not what the plant contained in the field.
How Ebbor works
Every Ebbor edition is made in Somerset from whole plants, handled gently and filled into a light- and oxygen-shielding pouch. We do not concentrate, clarify to brilliance or standardise away variation.
Each finished edition is independently analysed, and that record travels with it in the Plant Passport.
500ml · 20 serves · 0.0% alcohol.
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