Gregor Leckie has an effervescent personality to match the sparkling, zesty drinks he creates from a railway arch in the Gorbals.

His enthusiasm pours forth while talking about the beginnings of Rapscallion Soda. I listen to the entertaining stream of consciousness as I open a can from the new batch and take notes – we’re having drinks on Zoom, you never know when a quiz might start. 

Some background: Interrupting a bar tending career, Gregor moves to New Zealand and spends five years working in the wine industry: “At that stage I made the strong connection between what is grown, made and consumed”.

He arrives back in Glasgow in 2015, full of ideas and a passion for harnessing the local flavours he remembers from childhood: “I’ve such strong memories of rhubarb and strawberries and raspberries from being a kid and it seemed a bit daft to me that there was no Scottish drinks company loudly shouting about local produce”.

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At the same time he is reacquainting himself with the local nightlife in the city, a highly enjoyable process but one that resulted in “sugar fatigue” from mixed drinks, he explains, “when the carbonation subsides, all you are really left with are the sickly sweet syrups or you start tasting the artificial acids”.

Determined to do better, Rapscallion begins as a soft drinks manufacturer at the Gallowgate before moving to its present home. “The process calls on elements of my experience in distillation, brewing and wine-making.

We’re trying to pack as much flavour as possible into water while keeping sugar low and not taking shortcuts”.  Their core range includes Dry Lime, Burnt Lemon and Ginger Ninja flavours. Their portfolio will be strengthened by a new seasonal range, featuring ingredients from Scottish farms.

The first taste is labelled “S_01 Rhubarb - sour face pull”. Low level sweet with a slightly sour tang a fizzy floral finish. Carbonated water infused with rhubarb, pink grapefruit zest, Sichuan pepper, and raw organic cane sugar for a limited-edition summer drink. Genuinely refreshing.

Glasgow Times:

With the incoming trend for hard seltzer drinks, I wonder how much he sees Rapscallion as a mixer – this particular can goes very well with Scottish gin, try the burnt lemon flavour can paired with tequila. “We are more a soft drink than we have a mixer. When people have it on its own they get all the different layers that we engineer into that drink. When we have events, we see all kinds of different customers.

"Restaurants and bars have successfully built it into their cocktail menus and that’s exciting to see. We just encourage people to experiment, add other seasonal ingredients if they feel like it and build out flavour.

"I’m just happy if they are enjoying fresh fruit, low sugar drinks.”

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With independent cafes closing, Rapscallion found themselves with stock stranded at shuttered businesses and have shifted to a focus on their website – they sold around 2,500 Rhubarb cans online when it initially launched.

They have good relationships with places like Saint Luke’s, Cail Bruich, The Gannet and Café Strange Brew and are encouraged by the first signs of return for hospitality: “It’s great to see some cracking venues in Glasgow and Edinburgh return. We try to involve local businesses all around us on every level so this is important to us.”

The Covid-19 crisis has also hit farms, with lost contracts and orders drastically reduced, so Gregor is glad to be able to work with farmer Fraser McDonald in Arbroath to create a new drink from a traditional ingredient.

The limited-edition rhubarb soft drink is available directly from rapscallion.com and specialist independent retailers until the end of summer.