Welcome back!
I'm hoping everyone is feeling full of optimism for the impending spring just around the corner. I know I am, and it cannot come soon enough. I underestimated how out of sorts this winter has made me feel, I think it's possibly been a knock how much the spirits industry slows through January and February. After the dizzy heights of the festive season, it felt like someone pulled the rug from under me.
But it won’t be long now and I’ll be distilling with the roller shutter up and enjoying cups of tea in the sunshine outside the distillery rather than hiding from driving rain and 60mph gusts. I've been at the Distillery again this week bottling up the latest batch that came off the still a couple of weeks ago.
The main focus was on getting our new refills filled and initial orders out the door. I'm pleased to say it was a great success and whilst we still have a good stock we did have a huge amount of interest and orders of the aluminium refills. These will now be a permanent feature on our website to order as you require your ceramic bottle being filled backup.
There have been a few new additions to the Webshop since the last blog. As well as the refill we now have our custom neck tags which are made bespoke to each order with your required name or message on, and we have now officially launched our Custom Commission option for anyone wanting to get something that little bit extra special. Katie and I have started our first Custom Commission order today which felt fantastic!
I really love the idea that someone can put their own little ideas into how they want their bottle to look and I'm hoping we can really push the boundaries on some of the designs. I have to admit I have an idea that I'm quite excited to try for ourselves.
But with stocks of our gorgeous bottle at an all-time high, coupled with our shiny new refill bottles we are ready for full steam ahead into spring, summer, and beyond. Let's get filling these bottles!
Another huge milestone begins tomorrow, and is another reason we have been working hard to get stock levels to a healthy point. Our first 'The Gin To My Tonic' Craft Spirits Show in Liverpool at St Georges Hall is on Saturday. Tomorrow we will be loading the stand, stock, and all the trimmings into the van ready for an early start on Saturday morning. We have no idea how it's going to go or if the general public of Liverpool and surrounding areas will even like what we are about and have to offer but all we can do is turn up and try to make a splash.
The team at TGTMT has asked me to do a slot on their Masterclass stage which initially I was thinking "Absolutely no chance", however, I have taken a dive and agreed. I am completely out of my comfort zone with this and have to admit I am going to get up there and wing it with a few prompt cards. Knowing what I'm like, a script doesn't work for me and I want to be as open and organic as possible so I'm going with it and hopefully, I won't make a complete fool of myself due to nerves. I never in my life thought I'd be on any stage let alone one with Masterclass written on it, and once again feel like the imposter syndrome is kicking in; but I love our Story, Gin, Bottle, and Brand so hopefully this will shine through.
Anyway, time to go and assist Katie with feeding time at the Zoo. If I can tear the two little monsters away from Mario Kart. I'll be sure to fill you in on how the show went and all the latest happenings in the March Blog. Thanks again for reading!
Miles and Katie x