Tasting notes

Jonny Wilkinson’s fermented-drinks venture

JONNY WILKINSON ate plenty to fuel his 17-year rugby career, which saw the English fly-half become the country’s leading points scorer and a World Cup champion before he retired in 2014 after bagging yet more trophies with Toulon in France. But eating fermented foods – let alone making them – was an alien concept. His food choices were ‘all about function’, he tells me. ‘I ate way too much protein and had a limited understanding of fats, so avoided them at all costs.’

Remembering his list of achievements I’m inclined to think, ‘why change?’ but now, post playing, Wilkinson says he prefers to listen to what his body needs, ‘rather than what I need it to do’. It was his wife, Shelley, who sug- gested they make kombucha, a fizzy fermented drink made with sweetened green tea and a culture known as a scoby (symbiotic culture of bacteria and yeast), that’s good for the gut (more on this from Michael Deacon, overleaf). The scoby is an odd-looking thing (like a jellified pancake), and changes in character throughout the brew. ‘With our first few batches, we were constantly asking, “Is it meant to be doing that?!”’ Wilkinson recalls. A ginger and turmeric version was immediately ‘a winner’.

As a result of the couple’s kitchentable tinkering, he has launched three bottled versions called No 1, which are particularly delicious (not least the raspberry, pomegranate and hibiscus – sweet and spritzy). ‘They act as both a pickme-up and a settler,’ says Wilkinson, who is clearly putting retirement to good use. No1 Kombucha, £1.95 for 275ml at Sainsbury’s