Oh buoy! We’re just a teeny bit excited by this coastal-inspired, ready-to-drink cocktail brand. It’s local, it’s indie and it’s got sustainable cred, being plastic-free, and they donate 1% of sales to Project Seagrass because they care about the ocean. Most importantly, their tipples taste amazing, and *call us shallow* it doesn’t hurt their sherbet shades are very instagrammable too.

There are 16 tipples in the handcrafted range, including classics you’ll know – like Bramble, Cosmo and Espresso Martini – as well as ones you won’t, like Seabird. This limited edition recipe, unique to Bar Buoy, is as popular as their original and bestselling Margarita, thanks to a mouth-watering blend of Salcombe Start Point Gin, pink grapefruit juice, lime juice and agave syrup. We likey!

Uniquely, Bar Buoy cocktails are made with local Devon spirits, including Salcombe Gin, Two Drifters Rum and Tors Vodka, all award-winning brands in their own right. And they don’t stint on the rest of the ingredients, going easy on the sugar, and using, for example, real iced tea rather than cola in the Long Island Iced Tea. Quality, taste, time and care goes into the selection and mixing. You get the idea.

We’ve got lockdown to thank for Bar Buoy (it’s an ill wind, as they say). Inspired by a New Year’s resolution to make the perfect Margarita, co-founder and owner Tim Ball dreamt up the idea for a quality bottled cocktail while sitting on the beach in his hometown of Exmouth. It helps he’s a former whizz (aka the ‘bar boy’) in the global drinks events biz (think Olympics!) and, with help from his marketeer wife and business partner, Ria, Bar Buoy went online in 2020.

The range can now be found in local farm shops, delis, Blue Diamond gardens centres nationally, and numerous bars and eateries who have snapped up the chance to have a premium cocktail on the drinks menu during a skilled-staff shortage.

No need to take our word for it, either: their bestselling Margarita has already snaffled the Oscar of the food world, having been plucked from over 14,000 contenders to pick up a 3-star Great Taste Award 2021.

So, next time you’re looking for something to take to a party, are off for a beach barbie, or packing for glamping, and you’d rather not tote the contents of your drinks cabinet, here’s your faff-free go-to. As they say at Bar Buoy – just chill, shake and pour. And as we like to say at Muddy, cheeeeeeeers!