MURI

Founding. MURI is a Copenhagen-based producer of naturally non-alcoholic fermented blends, founded around 2020 by Murray Paterson, a UK expat living in Copenhagen. Paterson has placed the founding around the pandemic period, dating it to roughly two and a half to three years before an October 2023 recording, and elsewhere to almost five years before October 2024. The label emerged from and was informed by Copenhagen's gastronomic community, particularly the city's expertise in fermentation.^[1],[2]

Early facility. According to the producer, MURI started operations in a small walk-in fridge at a mushroom farm just outside Copenhagen. In that early facility the team built two small fermentation rooms and an artisanal counter-pressure bottle filler assembled from random plumbing parts.^[3]

Murray Paterson — Founder. Murray Paterson founded MURI. He spent most of his life in London before moving to Copenhagen, and in a March 2025 podcast described corporate roles including work at JP Morgan in Canary Wharf; an August 2021 source describes prior work as a terrorist analyst in London and an August 2023 interview describes political analysis for J.P. Morgan. He left finance for the UK cider industry, working in roles from picking apples in orchards to import/export and drink production, where he developed his interest in blending and fell in love with fermentation. He then moved to Copenhagen — approximately seven years before a March 2025 interview — to train as a distiller at Empirical Spirits, the company founded by Lars Williams, former head of Noma's test kitchen. Paterson was 45 years old as of the January 2025 podcast interview.^{[4],[5],[6],[7],[8],[9]}

Paterson's craft lineage. At Empirical Spirits, Paterson learned from Lars Williams how to compose a drink analogously to a complex dish — built from hundreds of components in varying proportions, many of them fermented. He first discovered koji while working as a distiller at Empirical, where he learned how powerful it could be in creating complex, layered flavours, later bringing the technique to MURI. Paterson founded MURI after applying blending concepts he had learned as a cider maker and distiller, and personally participates in foraging expeditions, including foraging woodruff for Passing Clouds.

Diego Paniagua — Operations / R&D. Diego Paniagua is a team member at MURI, not a founder. He is a former chef from Costa Rica who trained at the Basque Culinary Centre in San Sebastián. The producer describes him as overseeing operations and, in other material, as head of R&D. His fondness for vermouth is credited by the producer as the inspiration for the aperitivo New Forms.^[10]

Built, not stripped. MURI's products are naturally non-alcoholic by design and are never produced with alcohol that is later removed. The company does not use reverse osmosis, dealcoholization, or de-alcoholizing of any kind, and adds no flavour or colouring agents. It positions its drinks as beverages built from the ground up as non-alcoholic rather than as substitutes for alcoholic ones.^[5],[11]

Layered SCOBY / kefir fermentations. A June 2021 account describes a trio of layered fermentations used by MURI: the low-alcohol yeast Pichia kluyveri for tropical notes, water kefir grains for sweetness and balance, kvass for mouthfeel and depth, and a kombucha SCOBY for acidity. ABV is held below 0.5% by managing sugar and fermentation times with SCOBYs, water kefirs and a wine yeast that dies above 3% ABV. The producer states it deploys wine-yeast fermentation for high acidity, kvass for mid-level acidity, and kefir or kombucha for body and sweetness. Nuala's original composition included kombucha.^[12]

Tea infusion and tannin sourcing. MURI works with several teas, valued for flavour and for polyphenols and theaflavins that add structure and length, and extracts tannin-like texture from skins and stems. Cold-brewing preserves floral aroma while limiting tannin and bitterness.^[13],[14]

• Passing Clouds — sencha green tea aromatised with jasmine flowers from Grasse, cold-infused; the only MURI product with caffeine
• Nuala — tannin and body from tannin-rich black tea and pressed berry skins
• Pear skins, beetroot skins, fennel stems — extracted for tannin-like texture, earthiness and brightness

Restaurant ESSE. MURI worked with Eva Baumgartner, Beverage Director at ESSE in Copenhagen, to develop the restaurant's non-alcoholic pairing menu, producing MURI × ESSE: The Beginning, The Middle and The Finale. The idea for Bæleys came when chef Matt Orlando of ESSE challenged MURI to use spent potato skins from the restaurant, and The Middle uses spent smoked mussels from ESSE's dashi stock — reflecting a collaboration that ferments spent ingredients.^{[14],[15],[16],[17],[18],[19],[20],[21],[22],[23]}

Neighbours and circularity. MURI shares a building with Nordhavn Eddikebryggeri, a fermentation producer of artisanal vinegars and gastriques, to whom MURI gives its spent fruit.^[24]

Feinschmecker. MURI won the prize for best non-alcoholic drink at the 2025 Feinschmecker award gala in Hamburg; the producer states this was the first-ever prize the event gave for 'alkoholfreier Wein' (non-alcoholic wine). Murray Paterson accepted the award on behalf of the MURI team.^[25]

Viinilehti. Muri Nuala 2021 was selected as Viinilehti's best non-alcoholic beverage of 2023, praised for its berry-fresh and aromatic flavour profile.

Placement. MURI launched in Copenhagen's culinary scene and its blends are found in Michelin-starred restaurants there; Koan was MURI's first customer and put Passing Clouds on its menu. MURI's blends are served at venues including Kol, Ynyshir, Silo and, previously, Lyle's.^[12]