or anyone who does not believe in the power of television, cast your minds back to a time before the HBO series Sex & The City introduced the UK to the Cosmopolitan.

Sophisticated cocktail menus were rarely seen outside of central London and for many such drinks existed as the comedy concoctions Del Boy enjoyed or the near-lethal combinations served on 18 to 30 holidays.

Then Carrie and her friends appeared on the nation’s screens and cocktail culture exploded, opening up a new sales area for fruit marketers as independent bars and high-street chains bought in more than lemons and limes.

Now, not only are orders rising from bars, but also the suppliers of the spirits and mixers that create the cocktails. According to the website Make Me A Cocktail, which tracks trends in the industry, cocktail consumption is set to grow by 10 per cent in the next two years.

At New Covent Garden Market, suppliers Cream of the Crop deliver a selection of fruits and herbs to large pub groups, such as Young’s, and many smaller chains and independent bars.

Sales manager Ashleigh Kington says that business has grown as pubs and bars expand cocktail menus.

“Especially gastro pubs, they are trying to do different and quirky cocktail menus,” she adds.

“They all want quality, interesting produce and along with strawberries, apples, lemons and limes we’re supplying passion fruit and elderflower. Elderflower was dying out on the market, but we have seen a great demand for it. We’ve been supplying bundles and bundles of it from our farm in Banstead.”

Kington says the business supplies tonnes of mint and this year alone sold 713,325 lemons and 495,900 limes. It expects the figures to go up by 30 per cent next year.

“There’s a great demand for British produce, people are interested in food miles and they like foraged goods too,” she adds.

Such is the growth in the market that founder of Bar Fruit Supplies, Grant Stanton, closed his Battersea greengrocer business three years ago to concentrate on supplying bars. Stanton says he has seen business treble.

“I started when a local bar asked me to supply them with fruit, and when the bar opened more venues, they continued to ask me to supply them. They now have 13 bars,” he adds.

“As staff have left and opened their own bars, they have come to us for their supplies and also business has grown by word of mouth. If you offer a quality product and service, people want to do business with you.”

As the business has grown, Stanton has negotiated direct sourcing from growers. He says in a normal week, he will supply some 250 kilos of Israeli mint.

“We have increased business, this year we added more delivery vans, and we’re gaining new clients all the time,” says Stanton. “We find that clients change their menus only two or three times a year and so want the usual produce, limes, mint and lemons for the main, but things like edible flowers are becoming popular.”

Along with fresh produce, the cocktail industry also uses fruit puree mixers in drinks and in turn, these suppliers are buying in tonnes of fruit.

One of the leading suppliers is Funkin. Its CEO Andrew King is responsible for buying and says that he mainly sources Class II fruit from Spain, France and Italy.

“We choose varieties for their flavour and colour primarily. Fruit is the hero for Funkin and it must carry vibrant colour to the finished drink while flavours need to be compatible with the alcohols they are added to,” he explains.

“We aim to buy Class II fruit, as we are pureeing it, so slight skin blemishes do not matter to us. Clearly though this varies depending on the harvest, quality and specific fruits. Class II top fruit such as peaches, apples and pears are fine because we are pureeing them. With berries, this is not always possible.

“Fruits like blueberries are delicate and we need to ensure the colour and flavour are at the top of their specifications for our use in cocktails.” King adds that they work with growers on a forecast of the amount they will need, however, where there is a shortage of fruit they do use the wholesale markets.

Wholesale markets are also part of the fruit-buying process for gin and liqueur brand Raisthorpe Manor, which tries to source as much locally grown produce as possible including ingredients from its own estate in the Yorkshire Wolds.

The range, which includes damson gin liqueur and sloe gin, is marketed as being perfect for cocktails. The Manor even has its own cocktail bar service.

Owner Julia Raisthorpe says that they are supplied by a lot of local growers but for other products in the range, such as the orange vodka liqueur, they obviously have to buy in. “As the fruit is pureed, we mostly buy Class II but we want it to taste good,” she says. “It still has to be in good condition and be of quality. It just does not have to look perfect.”

Raisthorpe says that the business can be flexible when it comes to the flavours that it produces and therefore if a grower has an abundance of a certain fruit, they are happy to have it offered to them.

“We had one grower with plums galore and so we decided to make a plum gin,” she says. “We’re always looking for ideas, we’ve got a new range of elderflower gin, and so if people have an abundance of a fruit, we’re happy for them to get in touch.”

With new cocktail bars opening up every week, this is one sector of the alcohol market that appears to be holding its own in the recession and providing another avenue for fruit producers and suppliers to sell their produce. —