Grandma's Potions Are Making a Return - from Plant Extracts to Tree Spirits

Familiar herbs and orchard woods are finding new lives in wellness ingredients and premium drinks. Is the next wave of food innovation growing closer to home?

For some of us, the scent of lemon verbena brings back a grandma's garden and her potions. Today, that familiar plant sits within a global botanical ingredients business, while orchard woods are becoming the basis of premium non-alcoholic spirits. Two recent developments suggest the garden and forest still have plenty to offer modern food and wellbeing businesses.

Spain’s SUANNUTRA has announced local lemon verbena cultivation across farms in Valencia, connecting growing, harvesting, extraction and quality control. The plant supplies several of its branded wellbeing ingredients. Diversified growing locations, drip irrigation and soil-covering practices are intended to improve supply resilience, while controlled processing helps deliver consistent extracts. Here, a traditional herb becomes an ingredient whose commercial value includes traceability and standardisation.

In Britain, Seedlip founder Ben Branson’s Sylva is exploring another route from plants to premium products. Its Orchard non-alcoholic spirit combines British fruit wood and malted barley, using extraction and maturation to develop depth, fruit character and gentle smoke. Orchard is now in 325 Marks & Spencer stores across the UK, priced at £35. Sylva’s proposition centres on flavour and the experience of slow sipping.

The wider opportunity is substantial. Grand View Research estimates the global botanical supplements market at US$45.8 billion in 2026, projecting US$67 billion by 2030, with Asia Pacific growing faster than the global average. That estimate covers supplements rather than botanical drinks, but it illustrates the scale of one part of this plant-based economy. The emerging question is how familiar ingredients can earn fresh relevance through better evidence, distinctive flavour and a credible account of where they come from.

TRENOS SiGINT

SIGNAL

These developments point towards a commercial rediscovery of familiar plants. SUANNUTRA is building consistency into a botanical extract; Sylva is creating a drinking occasion from grain and wood. Both make the source material central to the product’s identity.

HUMAN FACTOR

A remembered scent or orchard flavour can make an unfamiliar product feel approachable. Your grandmother’s lemon verbena offers a human connection that technical ingredient language rarely achieves. Familiarity opens the door; the product still needs to deliver.

METRICS SNAPSHOT

Global botanical supplements: an estimated US$45.8 billion in 2026, forecast to reach US$67 billion by 2030.

Sylva Orchard’s announced M&S rollout: 325 UK stores, at £35 a bottle.

These measure different markets, but show two routes to commercial value.

LONG PLAY

For ANZ growers and US value-added manufacturers, the opportunity may extend beyond supplying raw herbs. Verified origin, consistent processing and distinctive flavour could support higher-value ingredients and finished products. Any wellbeing claim needs evidence relevant to the particular formulation: traditional use, a concentrated extract and a finished drink are different propositions.

Grandma’s garden may inspire the next product. What earns its place on the shelf will be the quality inside the bottle.

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