The best presents are chosen with someone in mind. You know why you picked it and there’s something to tell them when you hand it over.
That’s what we’ve had in mind this Christmas with our campaign, Rooted in our farm, wrapped for Christmas.
Where the idea came from
Our story started long before we had a name. It began with a gift of its own.
A century ago Black Mitcham peppermint grew across England, most famously in the fields around Mitcham in Surrey. Then the farmland was sold, the fields were built over and this remarkable peppermint all but disappeared.
In the 1990s Sir Michael Colman and Ian, our Master of Mint, went looking for it. They found it in America. When Sir Michael tasted it, piercing and pure and full of nostalgia, he knew England had lost something special. He wanted everyone to share what he’d just experienced. So he came home to Hampshire with a few precious cuttings.
When you think about it, the first Summerdown peppermint was itself a gift. Carried home. Planted with hope. Given time.
A story that grew slowly
It began on a patch no bigger than a tennis court. Black Mitcham is notoriously difficult to grow and it asked a lot of patience and research. Season after season Ian and Sir Michael looked after those first plants and let them settle into Hampshire’s soil and sky.
Today around 70 acres of peppermint grow on our farm and every plant is descended from those original cuttings. Everything happens here: the planting, the harvesting and the distilling.
Wrapped for Christmas
Our peppermint chocolates, teas and body, bath and home fragrance is made with oil distilled here in our purpose-built distillery, from a harvest brought in by our farm team.
None of it was made in a hurry. It’s grown slowly, given generously. It’s a present with some history behind it.
Pass the story on
When you hand over something from Summerdown this year, we hope you’ll pass the story on too. Tell them about the cuttings that came home and the tennis court patch that became a farm full of peppermint. About who grew it and why it taste and smells the way it does. It’s a good one to tell over a cup of tea, or after dinner with the chocolates going round.
Give a gift with a story.