“Some of the flavours we do are Rosemary and Lemonade which is tangy, earthy and strong. It’s the best gin mixer with Soda. The botanicals of the gin really come through. Strawberry Rose is beautiful. We have the shrubs in a few cafes in Lismore and that one is a ‘go to’ for people who’ve never had one. It’s sweet, fragrant and romantic tasting. The Blood Orange and Turmeric is popular, it has cardamom in it as well. The Apple Pie is one of my first flavours. It has green apples, cinnamon, nutmeg, cloves, bait of all spice and ginger. It’s basically like having an apple pie. It’s delicious. The Pina Colada is coconut and pineapple and it tastes just like a Pina Colada. Some of the Lismore cafes serving the shrubs are The Dirty Wilson, Augustines, The Loft, The Nostalgic Barber and Benchtop Espresso. Benchtop have taken it to the next level where they do this drink called Turkish Delight. They use the Watermelon Basil shrub as the base, rosewater, pomegranate and cinnamon. I had one and was blown away. Out of Lismore I’m at the 100 mile table in Byron, Our Corner Kitchen in Bangalow, The Brunswick Heads Milk Bar and Keith’s in Murwillumbah.
I believe I have about 10 flavours. I do want to try some more seasonal flavours. I have some ideas for some peach. I tried a peach last year but I feel like I want to work on that one. All the flavours have to pop and blow your mind. You have a sip and you go Whaaaat !! Overtime I strain a batch I try it and every new flavour I add in has to have that ‘OMG this is delicious’ before I share it with the world. Everything is done by hand at this point. At this stage I’m working on the concentrate’s for barbers and cafe’s. I am working toward a bottled beverage, like your kombucha or the drink you have in your drinks fridge. My shrubs will be in there too. I’m also working on a range of Bitters.
I anticipate that when Sept/Oct. rolls around it’s going to get really busy. All this processing and freezing and making shrubs in hummungus buckets, people are going to get thirsty. Last year I was only in 5 months and Christmas was crazy. So many people send them as gifts. Our labels were done by a local designer Rosanna Pimm. I grow a lot of my own herbs and I harvest a lot from friends who have really great Rosemary bushes and beautiful big Mint patches. I’m always looking in people’s front yards as I drive by at their Rosemary bushes. I’m happy to trim for a shrub trade. I need a lot of Rosemary.
The big learning curve for me is realising how hard it is to achieve strong, true botanical flavours without the use of flavour enhancers and chemicals. It makes you realise why big companies use them because it is not easy. An example is the Watermelon Basil. The reason I love it is because to me, it reminds me of being in Mediterranean countries. You go to Greece and there’s big bowls of watermelon out in the heat and that smell of Watermelon that’s kind of over ripe. When you think of Watermelon in a flavour, people imagine bubble gum and fake watermelon lollies. When people taste the shrub it can really twang people at first because its real watermelon fermented so it’s that flavour of hot summer days in Greece. Amazing!
The exciting thing I love is it is so regional. There’s shrub companies in Mexico that make Prickly Pear shrubs, Cranberry and Gooseberry shrubs in Canada. Here is very tropical. I have a Mango shrub, 2 different Pineapple shrubs, the citrus and the things that grow crazy here. I need access and I have to be consistent. The first shrub I ever made was Lime and Coriander. I made it during a year when I had an enormous amount of coriander growing in my garden. It is amazing with Tequila. It’s so fresh and delicious. I have limes saved for the Mango and Lime Jalapeño which is a killer flavour and really good with Tequila as well. Those flavours were made specifically to go with that drink.
This now is a collaboration project between myself and a woman named Katrina Button. Her family used to own Dragon Organics so she was involved with the Ginger Beer and the Turmeric Elixir. She’s the business brains behind the operation whereas I am more the production and the product development side of things. She is currently in America researching. She has another product in Mullumbimby she’s working on doing Mead with a bee keeper. When she gets back we will be working on getting this product outside of Lismore and working toward our goal of getting a bottled drink up and running.
I feel like I have been I training for this business my whole life. I began as a Herbalist when I was 17 under a traditional apprenticeship with a master Herbalist. My apprenticeship with her was basically sitting in a Hawthorn tree collecting berries, pressing litres of St Johns Wort oil, filling pillow cases with Calendula flowers. It was a very hands on, old world, medicine making apprenticeship. Bitters are just delicious tinctures. It’s a fun play on the things I’ve been doing with a serious intention. I can now use those skills with a playful intention, creating things for joy and pleasure. Bitters have their own place in a bar but also bitters with sodas are delicious. There are a million recipes but you can make your own. I’m using Australian natives in some of the formulas. I don’t know of any bitters using our Australian natives. It’s exciting.”