The Story

The Maker’s Hands

Before Schniffells there was a butcher’s block, a fishing boat, a courier’s van and the shop floor at Liberty. At twenty-six, burnt out from the pub and restaurant trade, Pete turned to furniture making, and found his new passion. A first-class honours degree in fine craft followed, with special commendations for his dissertation and a finely made partners desk.

Four years with an architectural woodworking firm took his work as far as Long Island and Virginia. Then came his own workshop in an old barn on a farm estate, alongside a stonemason and a specialist timber mill, designing and making one-off art furniture for private clients.

In 2020 he moved to the North Devon coast, to live on Exmoor. The heavy machinery stayed behind; hand tools and sculpture in timber and stone took over, with work shown at RHS Rosemoor and The Limes in Yorkshire, and then Schniffells began.

One of Pete’s timber sculptures, made before Schniffells.

‘The Kiss 4’: carved stone, before Schniffells.

‘The Kiss 1’: sculpture and Schniffells, side by side.

Eight months of trial and error

Schniffells started as a wasteful kitchen ritual: chopping fresh ginger, squeezing a lemon, stirring in honey. Five minutes of steeping for one weak mug. So Pete did what a maker does. He cooked longer. He researched deeper, tested obsessively, logged everything, until nothing needed changing.

Eight months of testing later, it clicked: nothing to add, nothing to improve. The taste, balance, finish, colour and hazy clarity were exactly where he wanted them, and as long as the same quality ingredients keep coming, he can brew it indefinitely and still enjoy every batch.

Word of mouth did the rest

He gave bottles to friends with no pressure attached. They all loved it, and they all bought it. The unglamorous hurdles: food standards, converting a utility room into a compliant production space, safety courses, microbiological testing, “all easy, because the product worked.”

The first stockist was The Pavilion Stores and Café in Parracombe, a community shop that embraced it, selling it by the bottle and as a served drink. Delis, farm shops and cafés followed across Exmoor and North Devon; owners taste it, love it, stock it and it sells itself.