Page 19 - Food&Drink March 2022

BLUE SKY
varieties grown in the Riverland, South Australia.
“I had been working on tonic recipes, making hundreds and hundreds of batches but I still wasn’t happy with it. Greg brought in his Bizzarro Bitter Aperitivo and we added the tonic – it was fantastic,” Cox says.
The Mischief Brew team and Grigouriou went halves on the tanks and canning equipment, with Mischief developing its sodas, Delinquente launching a spritz and pet nat, and the two working on a range of collaborative products.
Already the Bizarro collaboration is being exported to the US and New Zealand, with Japan and Korea next in line.
“We are moving into a whole new realm. Up to the end of 2020, we hadn’t sold anything outside of South Australia,” Cox says.
“We only really started this range in late 2020 and the response has been amazing.
“It has taken off in hospitality with more than 80 accounts, which is ideal for us before we look to retail.
“People are coming to us, which is nice. We’re at the start of something very exciting.”
At the moment, Mischief Brew is just Cox and Giles, with friends coming in to help on canning day.
“That can’t last forever, but at the moment it is really important and embodies who we are as a brand,” he says.
The artwork on the cans plays a similar role. While Giles does all the graphic design, the artworks were created by Kerri Anne Wright as lino cuts.
Mischief Brew was born from a niche product that fostered the esoteric quality of “if you know, you know”. For Cox and
“ Covid gave us time to think about what we wanted to be and the brand we wanted to create.”
Giles, that is still very much the brand’s identity.
“We are broadening our range and even heading in a new direction, but the brand still conveys its edginess while being more commercially viable,” Cox says.
When Food & Drink Business caught up with Cox, the Omicron variant was wreaking havoc with its highly contagious nature and creating subsequent headaches for employers trying to find staff.
“I ended up helping out a friend who owned a wine bar, and it was almost like an undercover boss situation. I could see how people responded and interacted with our drinks, they were treating it as an experience, like they would with awine.Itgavemealotof confidence we were on the right track,” he says.
As the pair expand the range and explore other collaborations, they are determined to keep raisingthebar. ✷
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