"I founded Bremuse together with Nataliya–my friend of many years. Being a very moderate drinker myself, I wanted to create a drink for consumers, just like me – for those who want to have a sophisticated delicious drink on a day when we do not want to have alcohol. When we started to work on Bemuse back in 2020, during the pandemic, there were already great alcohol free beers in the market. But we felt that non-drinkers should have more options of unique, delicious drinks, just like all the other consumers. What motivates me personally and makes me get up every morning and move Bemuse forward is the thought that I am giving a choice to consumers – a freedom to express their personality through the consumption choices, helping to liberate non-drinkers from the stigma of "something being wrong" when one is not drinking. I believe that the mindful drinking movement is a colossal societal change away from the society dictating us the norms and towards individuality and freedom of choice. I am very proud to be apart of this.

Nataliya, my co-founder, has always been a nature lover. For her, using business as a force of good and helping the environment in the process was the main motivation factor.

So Bemuse was born out of these two passions combined. We look at traditional honey wine as a source of inspiration. The core of our business is honey. Although everyone knows some facts about honey, when you look closer, you start realising what an amazing ingredient it is!

It is very complex and varied in flavour – honey is our provenance, in a similar way as different vineyards define the taste of wine. It has lots of health benefits – from antiseptic to cognitive and mental health benefits. And the bees – our co-workers as we like describe them – are nature's true wonders!"

"Our flavours are inspired by traditional recipes. I did lots of research of how traditional mead – one of the sources of inspiration for Bemuse – was brewed in the past. Traditional recipes used herbs, spices, and fruits – this is how we crafted our flavours. We create our drinks with a natural fermentation process – we use a special type of yeast which does not produce alcohol and supplement it with two other parallel fermentation processes. We do not extract alcohol through reverse osmosis and can be considered a natural honey wine. Honey wines can range anywhere from sweet to dry, and can be still and sparkling. It can be infused with herbs, fruit, hops to add to the flavour. All Bemuse honey wines are Brut (dry) – with low sugar content. We infuse our wines with all-natural ingredients. The taste is light and refreshing and the drink is versatile and is perfect for many occasions. It can be used as an aperitif, pairs well with food and can also be combined with other non-alcoholic or alcohol-containing drinks to make delicious cocktails.

With a range of intensity and complexity, our blends marry the sophisticated and subtle flavours of apple blossoms honey through to the heady exuberance of heather honey."

"Although there is a growing interest in the market, it is difficult to find partners to understand our unique product – generally low/no drinks are quite specific in how they are made and conventional breweries do not understand how to work with honey and understand fully our fermentation processes.

Distribution can also be challenging factor as our product doesn't fall into a specific category, buyers do not always understand the product. There is lots of innovation and unique drinks being created, however the industry is structured along lines of wines and beers so new and unique drinks do not easily fit into these categories."

"I see more and more – in the press and the industry the trend which I quite like – moving further away from replicating of taste of a particular alcohol containing drink – wine, beer, spirits towards uniquely tasting innovative drinks. Bemuse was following this trend since our origin and it is great to see the trend is growing. Especially the hospitality sector is getting excited about the non-alcoholic drinks that are not comparing their taste to the traditional flavours of wines and beers.

Functionality of non-alc drinks is also a great trend. It is not any more enough to say – our product does not contain alcohol and is low in sugar. Consumers are asking – what else your product can do for me? Bemuse is based on this amazing ingredient – honey, which is rich in beneficial nutrients. Now, even more attention is focused on health and moving away from highly processed foods. Bemuse has a natural production process with clean ingredients. Natural drinks are becoming more popular as consumers want to understand more about what goes into drinks. Transparency in production and on labels is very important to us to enable our consumers to know exactly what is in our drinks."

"I'd like to highlight the sustainability of our drink. Honey wines are the most sustainable drinks on earth. As we all know, we rely on pollinators for our food supply. With the population of wild bees dwindling, we will increasingly depend on the local beekeepers and domesticated bees to stand as the last line of the defence for all plant-based foods we love. Moreover, apiaries have one of the lowest footprints, while vineyards, as beautiful as they are, require a lot of land. And while a lot of food production goes down the route of mechanisation and minimising human labor, honey cultivation requires direct human interaction with the hives and the beekeeping industry proud itself in creating jobs."

"Our core ingredient – honey – makes our drink unique. We use a variety of raw, British sourced honeys which act as a backdrop, giving the wines a depth that pairs superbly with food. There is more to our drinks than just being non-alcoholic.

This is what excited the executive chef Masaki Sugisaki to create a pairing menu with Bemuse at his signature restaurant Dinings SW3 in Chelsea. Our collaboration runs the end of February on a set lunch menu formed around the theme of 'honey as an alternative ingredient' the menu will include four dishes, each aligned with one of Bemuse Drinks' distinct flavours. Dining SW3's Drinks Menu will also include three non-alcoholic cocktails created by trailblazing bartender Wiktoria Sudak, each one showcasing a different Bemuse drink."