Regal flavour

The royal wedding must-have flying off Kiwi shelves

Elderflower cordial has been flying off Auckland grocers’ shelves after it featured in Prince Harry and Meghan Markle’s wedding cake.

Around 200 Amalfi lemons were used to make the threepart layer cake, as well as 10 bottles of Sandringham Elderflower Cordial, made with elderflower from Queen Elizabeth’s estate in Norfolk.

Farro Epsom grocery manager Tim Bird said Aroha elderflower cordial sold out at every Farro store in Auckland last weekend.

“We had heaps of people come in and tell us that they were making the same cake as [Meghan and Harry] were having at the wedding,” Bird said.

“It’s usually a good seller anyway and quite a popular flavour but it really took off with the royal wedding.”

Another business revelling in the popularity of the elderflower is The Caker in Auckland.

The Caker’s Penny Robinson said Sky TV had placed a large order of cakes in the royal wedding flavour and a number of people had inquired about getting the same one made.

“There was probably upwards of 15 to 20 people who have emailed us over a couple of weeks asking if we can make them a lemon and elderflower cake,” Robinson said.

The Caker formulated a special recipe to satisfy the orders.

The only large-scale commercial business producing elderflower cordial in New Zealand is Aroha Drinks, based in Canterbury.

Owner Mark Dillon was thrilled to hear the flavour was so popular.

He said he started the company back in 2007, when very few people knew about elderflower.

“It was mainly used by rural folk, farming housewife types, as it grows wild,” Dillon said.

“I picked up on it while I was travelling around Europe and thought it would be a great product for New Zealand.

“And when I got back my mum was making it and it was growing everywhere on our farm.”

“So I put two and two together and thought, ‘If they like it over there they will probably like it here at some point too’.”

He set about introducing elderflower cordial into metropolitan areas, cafes and boutique grocers and it started to become a hit with Kiwis.

Photos / AP Prince Harry and Megan Markle’s wedding cake was flavoured with lemon and elderflower. Right, being harvested in Canterbury by Mark Dillon for his company’s cordial.