Softness, subtlety and sophistication aren’t usually associated with the cracking open of a can of pop. More often, what hits first is that all-too-familiar combo of harsh carbonation, hyper-sweetness and unchanging flavour from first sip to last.
But Gregor Leckie’s Glasgow-based Rapscallion brand of hand-engineered fresh fruit sodas has been slowly challenging consumer tastes and is now making serious inroads in a UK soft drinks market that already has a staggering 273 brands all jostling for attention.
His latest flavour, Rhubarb S_01 Sour Face Pull - the first in a new series using seasonal Scottish soft fruits - shifted 2500 cans in the week before its official lockdown launch purely via social media and without any advertising.
Not bad for his first step into the all-important digital pivot, or leap to online marketing, which has become the way forward for many in food and drink during the pandemic lockdown. (Leckie’s growing list of restaurant and bar clients disappeared overnight when they were forced to close indefinitely.)
When I first wrote about Rapscallion in 2016, it was after meeting Leckie (whom I photographed at the time, above), a GP’s son from Edinburgh, in his tiny lab in the Gallowgate in Glasgow’s East End and he had just launched his ground-breaking brand. Surrounded by tanks, tubes, bags and canisters. He looked for all the world like a modern-day alchemist and now, in retrospect, very Breaking Bad. He was actually developing his unique technique for cold-infusing his fresh fruits with a range of spices and herbs – a slow process that enhances flavour and avoids the need for artificial additives - and tweaking his carbonisation process. He was testing the brand with “taster kegs” at pop-up events and talking to top restaurateurs. He moved larger scale a year later and is now in hip new premises in the Gorbals.
But his ambition remains as firm as ever: to “start an awkward conversation with the soft drinks industry without trying to preach to people”. Hence the name Rapscallion, meaning iconoclast or rebel.
The 33 year old’s product chimes with the current foodie obsession with provenance. “I’m not aiming to take out Schweppes but I do want to start a counter-culture,” he told me.
I got to sample Rhubarb S_01 on a Zoom media launch with Leckie himself hosting. It was a most spectacular and surprising taste sensation: on its own, a hit of intense very slightly sour yet sweet rhubarb flavour in the mouth in a light fizz, with the nose registering grapefruit and very subtle floral lift of pepperiness. It was almost like a wine tasting. Indeed, the wine writer Peter Ranscombe has already expertly described Rhubarb S_01 as having “a vegetal whiff of wet leaf on the nose and then a bitter tang on the finish”. When sampled with botanical gin it complemented and enhanced it.
Rhubarb S_01 with ice and grapefruit wedge and Sichuan pepper: I love its delicate pink colour.
The rhubarb is from Fraser McDonald’s farm in Arbroath, and is infused with candied pink grapefruit zest and Sichuan pepper with a touch of raw organic cane sugar. It’s very delicate in colour. To illustrate how different parts of the fruit make for different flavours, we tried the soda with three different expressions of grapefruit: whole grapefruit sous-vide in rhubarb sugar; grapefruit wedges with Sichuan pepper, to show the intense aroma of the pepper (see right); and zest on its own, to highlight the bright bitter oils released in the glass. The addition of gin or vodka was optional. Ice altered perceptions too.
Leckie explained: “Rhubarb is one of the simplest drinks we do, but it’s exciting to play with different batches. Some people find rhubarb intensely grapefruity, and rhubarb changes its flavour as it matures, so we can adjust the balance between them as the season develops.”
Strawberry with Scotch Bonnet chilli (S_02), and Raspberry with oats, lemon zest and star anise (S_03) will follow as the Scottish soft fruits come into season. This makes the sodas tantalisingly short-batch and limited edition, as well as local and seasonal. They will join Rapscallion’s core range of Ginger Ninja with pimento and lemon zest (C_01), Burnt Lemon with charred zest and coriander seed (C_02) and Dry Lime with rind, saffron, lime leaf (C_03).
I love the packaging by Freytag Anderson, the German-Scots design studio based in Glasgow and Oban. “We wanted to build on the subversive, rebellious nature of the Rapscallion name and better communicate the all natural ingredients,” they explain. “A sterile approach to layout, bold use of colour and minimal type treatments help to differentiate core range and seasonal product lines. The deliberate short stop label highlights the cans base metal, hinting at a more clinical and scientific approach to production.”
Leckie’s sodas, on their own or with white spirits like gin, vodka or Tequila, don't flood the tastebuds like some mass-market brands, and as mixers they're intended to compliment rather than dominate botanical craft spirits. At the moment they are 60:40 soft drinks to mixers, though Leckie has mixed alcoholic drinks in the pipeline in collaboration with the likes of Scots brands Arbikie and Porter’s, and he hinted that the Ginger Ninja works well with a Lowland Malt. Rhubarb S_01 goes really well with gin.
He’s naturally hesitant to divulge the exact process he’s taken years to perfect. And with good reason. It’s surely only a matter of time before the big brands look to tap into the emerging market Leckie has so beautifully and painstakingly curated.
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