Meet the Thirsk entrepreneur who created an alcohol-free alternative to Malibu

Colette Safhill, from Thirsk, launched two businesses – Goat Drinks and Myth Drinks - out of frustration with the uninspiring soft drink options being sold in restaurants.

“I haven’t drunk for 21 years and about five years ago I got sick of being offered nothing I wanted to drink when I went out,” she said.

“At that point there wasn’t a no/low market. Everywhere I went I was offered elderflower fizz. One night, about five years ago, I said to my husband: ‘how hard can it be to make a decent drink?’”

Mrs Safhill initially made a natural energy drink Horny Goat, named after a key ingredient she wanted to include – horny goat weed. But although she couldn’t use the ingredient in the end, the name stuck.

She said: “I wanted to make a ubiquitous drink, like coca cola, that could be used in different ways.

“In my head it would have a magical functional property, probably based on kombucha and it was going to have horny goat weed in it.

“About a week later I found out I don’t like kombucha, it can turn into alcohol, and horny goat weed isn’t permissible in UK food and drink, so that was short lived.”

The natural Horny Goat energy drink, sold on goatdrinks.co.uk, is aimed at people who don’t like the taste of traditional energy drinks. It is selling fast and she has already started to export.

"I’m talking to vending machine companies, events organisers, gyms, universities, convenience store distributors about Goat because it’s quite an unusual product,” she said.

The naturally caffeinated sparkling energy drink has a hint of Pomelo and Mango. Mrs Safhill has added B-Vitamins, Zinc and Co-enzyme Q10 for the energy boost.

"It’s a completely clean label, there’s nothing in there that’s artificial but with legally claimable positive health outcomes.

"With a lot of energy drinks you’ve either got the aggressive brands or drinks with a wafty essence of leaf that someone once said was good for you.

"Mine’s got claimable benefits because of the things that have gone in there and the levels they’ve gone in at.

"It will support your immune system, your metabolism, your energy, your heart function...all sorts of things. And it doesn’t taste horrible.”

After perfecting the recipe for Horny Goat, Ms Safhill turned her attention to a zero-alcohol spirit, with the idea of trying to recreate the taste of Malibu remembered from her Wham fan days.

She said: “I had no industry knowledge. I’d never worked in a bar or even a coffee shop and I hadn’t been in bars and pubs for 20 years either, although none of this occurred to me at the time.”

After several disastrous recipes and a break from the business following the death of her father and the pandemic, she returned to the project about 18 months ago.

“Everything had moved on in that time but although the no/low alcohol category had grown, it still had the same problems,” she said.

“I wanted the drink to be fun like back when I was younger and life was all about Wham and Club Tropicana. For me, that’s always going to be Malibu so that’s what I made, an alcohol-free Malibu. I think I’ve actually created a memory.”

With the help of a food technician from Queen Margaret University in Edinburgh, Mrs Safhill created Myth - a non-alcoholic coconut white cane spirit – with a dark version to go alongside it.

Both drinks are vegan and gluten-free. One has nine calories and the other has 23 calories a shot.

Mrs Safhill launched Myth Drinks in May this year and a few weeks later won the zero alcohol trophy at the International Wine & Spirits Competition. She went on to win the Free From Christmas Drink category at the Free From Christmas Awards 2022.

Myth is sold on the mythdrinks.co.uk website as well as a number of other websites, plus The Balloon Tree farm shop near York and High Paradise Farm in Thirsk.

It is also used in some cocktails in the Virgin Mary Bar in Dublin.

The mum-of-four still works as a psychotherapist, although the drinks businesses are taking up an increasing amount of her time. “It’s is going well, although it’s really hard work,” she said.

Looking ahead, she said the main challenge is working out how to scale the business.

"It’s literally just me at the moment. I do everything in the business but I’m at a stage now where I need to grow,” said Mrs Safhill.

“This is going to be my full-time job at some point but I need to move from this small start-up space into a scalable business space and it’s finding the best way to do that. Whether that’s raising investment or whatever that looks like. It’s exciting but terrifying at the same time.”