Chris Rundle goes behind the scenes at the West company selling the taste of English country kitchens to the world

I t would be dragging out an old and very overworked cliché to say that when he concocted his first commercial batch of elderflower cordial 20 years ago, Kit Morris could have had little idea of what he was starting.

But there must be few cases where this particular turn of phrase is more appropriate, given that what was a modest cottage industry in 1989 is now on course to achieve £20 million annual sales by 2012.

Such is the startling success of Bottlegreen Drinks, the company based in Woodchester, near Stroud, which was founded on one of the oldest – but at the time least-familiar – of English drinks.

In fact the elder tree, its flowers and its berries (both poisonous in their raw state: they contain a toxic alkaloid) have been part of our diet and culture for centuries.

The word elder itself comes from "aeld", the Anglo-Saxon for fire – a reference to the fact that the hollowed-out sticks of elder could be used to blow up the flames under the cooking pot.

Elderflowers were hung in bunches in medieval kitchens to ward off flies and by the late 18th century they joined a whole range of wild herbs and fruits being fermented into country wines.

In Victorian times, every household kept a bottle of elderflower water to treat sunburn and – apparently – remove freckles. And the creamy heads of blossom were a cook's delight. They added a fragrance to stewed gooseberries (the two used to come in season about the same time), were often added to pancakes and muffins and, dipped in batter, could be deep- fried as fritters.

And then there was the cordial: by the 1980s pretty much neglected outside a few country kitchens, where it was made every spring, but one of the most delicious that can be prepared from any wild or cultivated plant. Which is probably why it was such an outstanding success as soon as Kit Morris and his wife Shireen first started bottling the taste of the English countryside 20 years ago.

Within a year Waitrose was knocking on the door and expansion was non-stop from that moment. Demand soared – to the extent that there were soon complaints that Bottlegreen's army of part-time pickers was denuding every hedgerow for miles around as they gathered sacks of the heady-scented blossoms.

Two years ago Kit and Shireen were able to retire, handing the business over under a management buy-out to some of their most enthusiastic staff. But they left behind a legacy of a stylish and contemporary range of products with its roots still firmly embedded in English kitchen culture.

In addition to the elderflower-based cordials and pressés there are now alcoholic spritzers, sorbets and a ginger and lemongrass cordial, the second best-selling line.

All are in elegant, attractively-designed bottles and all sell into a market fortuitously peopled by consumers desperate to reconnect with the genuine tastes and flavours of the countryside.

Bottlegreen now gets its raw material from two farms rather than the hedges and woods of Gloucestershire, one in Nailsworth and the other in Kent, where elder trees grow in precise lines. They also take some supplies from a picker who scours one of the national parks in Hungary for his harvest.

"Although it may be a weed you want it to be easily pickable, which is why they cultivate so carefully on the farms," says Simon Speers, now Bottlegreen's managing director – and still, apparently, coming to terms with the phenomenal growth the company has seen.

"When Kit and Shireen started out it was very much backyard stuff and yet in 20 years we have actually become an international brand. All right, we may not be the same as Coke or Pepsi, but Bottlegreen has definitely grown up."

As to what actually lies behind the success of a drink which, after all, most people could make at home, Simon Speers says it was – and continues to be – a happy marriage of content and design.

Shireen's skills as a designer meant that from the outset the elderflower cordial was being sold in eye-catching bottles with attractive labels.

"The contents tasted fantastic and allied to that was the visual aspect. But, of course, they were almost ahead of the game, given where consumers have gone today," says Simon.

With the business doubling in the past five years without any such increase in overheads, prospects for Bottlegreen look bullish, to say the least.

Once summer comes round, production will switch to a double shift system, as usual, and the installing of another fully-automated bottling line is also on the cards.

But while the company employs 35 full-time staff it also relies heavily on another, 85-strong group of people: the local women who make up its consumer panel.

"They give up their time to come in and taste new products and talk about the company," adds Simon.

"We're very keen on feedback: we actually do get a lot of phone calls from consumers and since we are still a small company they can usually get to speak to the person they are trying to contact.

"But it's our locally-recruited panel that we look to for real guidance. By and large if they say we're getting it right, then we probably are."