Hey! We’re Ellen & Alex, the founders of Hurst Botanicals. When we met, we sparked something in each other – a nigging feeling that we weren’t really doing what we loved.
We both decided to leave our comfy, corporate jobs and set off backpacking across Asia, South East Asia and Australia together. Having left our adult selves behind our relaxed, creative minds started to reawaken. We were always floating ideas of doing something different when we returned home.
After 10 months of backpacking we had reached Australia but the world began to shut down. Covid – 19 hit. We had to make the decision to stay or catch a flight home.
We caught the last flight out of Melbourne before lockdown in Oz and flew back to the Uk. We connected with a family who let us to live in their barn in a village called Hurstpierpoint. It was an idillic setting, nestled in nature and right next to the rollling hills of the South Downes National Park.
Inspired by our travels we started brewing and fermenting in the barn kitchen – this is where the the first cogs of Hurst started to turn.
When we decided to give Hurst a go, we had the perfect space to start in – beside Ellen’s family pub in Co.Clare, Ireland.
The last leg of our journey brought us to Ellen’s home village, Clarecastle, where we started piecing together our new business on the West coast of Ireland.
Ellen grew up learning to cook and bake with her mum at home. Spending her childhood Sundays trying every Rachel Allen recipe ever published. She went on to study Nutritional Science in UCC. After getting the bug for food development from an internship she moved to San Francisco to work with a sensory science team in Silicon Valley on meat-free innovation. When she returned to Ireland she continued working in food Research and Development – launching new food products into the Irish and UK markets.
Alex hails from the London-Hertfordshire boarder in the UK where he grew up eating freshly grown veggies from his nans garden and has loved and appreciated good food ever since. He studied business in University and started his working life out in a busy fresh produce company in the heart of London. He stayed working within commercial with national and international food business’ until moving to Ireland with Ellen to start Hurst.
From brew to bottle, all our drinks are proudly produced in Clarecastle, Co.Clare. Each batch is brewed and each bottle is filled by Ellen & Alex.
