These terms can be used interchangeably, but the premise is the same. Using powerful ultrasound-emitting generators (kind of like speakers) placed opposing each other, the ultrasound waves crash into each other tens of thousands of times per second. Where the ultrasound waves meet, there are very small but very powerful bursts of energy called ‘cavitations’. We utilise these cavitations to push to-be-matured liquid into and out of our chosen wood blend, exposing flavour, colour, and character with every cavitation. What this means is that we can extract incredible flavours at astounding speed.

This is one of Jack’s favourite bits of kit, it works kind of like if you were baking a cake in space, but we are cooking wood. First of all, the atmosphere is sucked out of the oven, then the heat is slowly raised. With the atmosphere gone, the water is boiled out of the wood at a very low temperature, meaning that the naturally occurring sugars don’t boil away. With the heat rising, those sugars get caramelised and the wood takes on a darker colour and a toastier flavour without any charring. What’s really great is that the kiln gives us the ability to fine tune those toasty flavours, sort of like finding the perfect moment to take your bread out of the toaster in the morning to get the ideal crunch.

A very strong and dense hardwood species from West Africa. It has an amazingly vibrant natural colour, somewhere between brick-red and flame-orange, which lends itself to the reflections in a glass of Sylva 001. When freshly sawn, it has an almost seaweed-y salinity to it, coupled with a hint of red spice. Once it has been roasted, it picks up a deep chocolate cake note (think Bruce Bogtrotter) as well as some charred red pepper and paprika. Padauk itself has been used as a spice for a long time now with some Danish companies still using it to colour and flavour their pickled herring, if you are into that sort of thing.

Our Red Oaks have been harvested less than 200 meters away from our labs, here on the Essex/Suffolk border. Red Oaks are not native to the UK but have been naturalised since their introduction here from North America in the 1700s. They stand out from their White Oak cousins by their strikingly pointy foliage, which turns a deep shade majestic crimson in Autumn. The flavour of Red Oak is hard to quantify sometimes, as it is both familiar and alien, all at once. When roasted, buttered popcorn or freshly baked hot cross buns come to mind, and the overall flavour has notes of redcurrant jam, strawberry bootlaces, butterscotch and light roasted coffee.

Our great pals from the West Coast of Scotland. They make some incredible organic spirits and whiskies; you should have a try if you are so inclined here. We use some of their spent whisky barrel staves which are no longer useable or broken. Although the wood is no longer fit to be a barrel, it harbours an enormous amount of flavour still. These cask staves taste like you would imagine, like a great whisky, although there is some wonderful creaminess and familiar spiciness that is unmistakably oak-y.

There isn’t much Olivewood around as it’s fruits are generally more sought after, however, this beautifully ornate wood hides a wealth of flavour beneath the bark. Once toasted, it takes on a subtly citrus-like aroma with some sassafras or even some cola-like flavours. Digging deeper and you’ll find raspberry jam, sunbaked fresh linens, musky perfume and even dark red wine (Barolo?) notes. This wood is totally alluring.

More commonly found in American whiskies, it has a characteristic spiciness, homeliness and a warmth which we wanted to build upon for our first release as the spiciness of the Padauk marries with the grain nicely. Traditional rye whiskies are usually bolder, more impactful than their barley or corn counterparts. Our rye distillate carries the essence of the grain with grassy, meadowy flavours with a malty, almost biscuity finish.

Some great folks over there at Wildfarmed HQ, founded by one half of Groove Armada, Andy Cato, they are the most progressively minded farmers out there. They are on a mission to grow grains the right way, with regenerative practices at the heart of everything they do; to reverse the generations-old habits of taking from the land without giving back or working collaboratively with it. If you are at all a fan of nature, check out what they are producing with their partners. We use their rye grain for Sylva 001 Padauk.

This is a fancy term for letting gravity slowly (really slowly) pull liquid through our ingredients. What this allows us to do is to intensely extract flavours whilst maintaining the body and essence of the original ingredient. We use this to try and exemplify the character of our woods, condensing their aroma. Some woods, like Padauk, have their colour extracted so intensely with this method that it can be used as a dye.

As American Whiskey has their ‘mash bill’ which details what grains and at what percentage are in their mash, we have a ‘Wood Bill’ as a bit of a nod and a wink. Each release will have a set Wood Bill that will be unique for that batch. Think of it as a receipt with details of what went in. Over time we will build up a library of bills that we can call on to make a new batch, if we want to resurrect a release.