FREQUENTLY ASKED QUESTIONS

What does the word Sylva mean?

Sylva is the old English for ‘of the forest’ or wood. It’s sometimes used in ‘silviculture’ which describes the care & cultivation of woodlands. It's also the Sylva in Sylvanian Families—if you remember those folks.

Is this non-alcoholic whisky?

Sylva is not a whisky—nor is it trying to be—but in many ways, it drinks like one. It has the same feeling, uses the same ingredients (grain and wood), and fits the same occasions as great whiskies. However, Sylva is unrestricted where whisky is bound. Sylva is familiar to whisky lovers but does not need to adhere to whisky’s formal heritage of overly restricted rules about grain, wood & time. In short, Sylva is more than whisky.

What is sonic ageing?

Good question. It’s a method of rapidly extracting flavour, colour & character from our ingredients. It works by causing many tiny ‘cavitations’ from powerful ultrasonic waves—this action pushing our liquid into & out of our solid ingredients tens of thousands of times per second. This means that we can get the same flavour from our ingredients in a matter of days or weeks that would take traditional processes years to accomplish.

Why don’t you use a barrel?

There’s only a few very specific woods that barrels are made from because of their structural ability & their capacity to be watertight, which is quite confining—creatively. Our process uses high temperatures & pressures, far beyond what a traditional whisky barrel could handle. And that’s where our steel kegs come in.

Do you use caramel?

We do not add any distillers caramels for colour or flavour. That all comes from the wood.

Any allergens?

Our first release, PADAUK, is allergen free. Please note that we do process raw grain on-site, but our grain is all distilled & should therefore be gluten-free.

What’s the shelf life?

We recommend drinking Sylva within 6 months, & after opening, drink within 3 months.

Where can I buy Sylva?

The best way is to get on the mailing list to be notified when our next release will be available exclusively through our website for pre-order. Sylva will also be selectively available through our partnership outlets—but only for specific releases.

Why can’t I buy Sylva outside the UK?

We only make enough liquid for pre-order sales. This means that once we’ve made the liquid, we won't make it again. But fear not, we will soon make something new. Small productions means small distributions. Rest assured, Sylva will be out in the wider world before long.

I have some wood. Would you like it?

Yes please! As long as you know what it is, where it came from, it's not poisonous & it hasn’t been treated with anything, we’d love to find out what it tastes like. We especially love fruit or crop trees, as they tend not to be harvested for their wood & can sometimes be hard to get hold of.

Do you take commissions?

We are always open to ideas, partnerships & discussions involving wood, grain & sustainable practices.
We are a young company &—as such—we cannot guarantee the viability of commissions just yet, but sometime soon, perhaps.