The husband-and-wife team behind the award-winning NB Gin, are bringing their own brand of premium vodka to the market.

NB Distillery, located in North Berwick, has broken new ground by producing the world’s first London Dry citrus vodka.

Steve and Vivienne Muir, the couple behind the distillery, say that luck played a part in creating the new drink.

When creating NB Gin, which is also produced using the London Dry process, the master distiller ran some micro test batches using only a small number of botanicals to explore the different flavours. One of these was a citrus run and the Muirs were hugely impressed with the smooth, subtle and long citrus flavour which was created.

It took another 18 months, hundreds of samples and countless tasting committee sessions to come up with the final version of the new London Dry drink.

Vivienne Muir says: “Like our gin, we’ve not compromised on quality, using only British pure grain spirit and the best botanicals we can find. What we’ve produced is totally new and we think that it will throw a curveball into the vodka market in terms of its uniqueness.

“There are no gimmicks or strange quirks involved. The innovation lies within its extremely stringent production method, which has allowed us to create something very classic, very natural, and of the highest possible quality, following the London Dry process to the letter. There are no additives or sweeteners in our London Dry vodka.”

As part of their final tasting committee, Steve and Vivienne once again engaged the services of Charles Maxwell at Thames Distillers in London, who said: “This is an exceptionally well-balanced vodka with lovely subtle citrus notes. I’m not aware of anyone else producing citrus vodka though the London Dry process. Quite an achievement.”

The first batch of 300 bottles of the vodka has already been snapped up by Lockett Brothers in North Berwick, and will go on sale today. NB Gin launched at the same location in October 2013.

The Muirs believe this is a good time to be entering the vodka market. Recent figures from Mintel show that 47% of the UK adult population were drinking vodka in the 12 months to September 2014, and it accounts for 60% of total value sales of white spirits and ready-to-drink products in the UK at an estimated £2.58 billion.