Borrago is taking its first step into the UAE by launching a non alcoholic drink in Dubai: where its steam-distillation process is particularly important for achieving 0.0% ABV.

This non-alcoholic drink is designed as a base for non-alcoholic cocktails with all the taste and theatre of alcoholic ones.

Borrago is named after the blue-purple flower borage. It’s now available in pubs, bars, and Michelin starred restaurants in the UK, as well as in stores including Daylesford organic, Harvey Nichols and Majestic Wines. It also quickly started exploring international markets, such as Canada, Norway and the Czech Republic.

Borrago's launch into Dubai, provides the first step into the UAE. Dubai is not out first international market, but we see it as a very important one, Tuke-Hastings told BeverageDaily.

In UAE and the Arab world this is there first step. They see dry and semi dry countries as an important marketplace.

For entering such markets, he realised that a 0.0% alcohol content was going to be important.

"Alcohol content was a key thing to get right," explained Tuke-Hastings. In the UK, under 0.5% is legally non-alcoholic, but for Halal it needs to be under 0.3% and for some Arab countries it has to be true zero. With our steam distillation process, we are 0.0% so that was spot on. Steam distillation uses water rather than alcohol as a base to extract flavor and scent from botanicals. We use it as it allows us to have an absolute no-alcohol-in and no-alcohol-out product.

The de-alcoholisation process is muddy and weaken flavors, whereas this gives crisp strong flavors and allows to have a product where we recommend a single rather than the double shot our competitors use.

So the bottle goes further and the flavours hold their own in cocktails.

The brand also had to look at other considerations when it came to packaging and marketing.