Current Issue #488

By The Glass: Never Never Distilling Co.'s Sean Baxter on whiskey, gin and camping cocktails

By The Glass: Never Never Distilling Co.'s Sean Baxter on whiskey, gin and camping cocktails

Having moved from being a man behind the bar to one behind a business, Never Never Distilling Co.’s Sean Baxter chats to By The Glass about working with whiskey in Scotland, gin’s storied history and the best way to make a cocktail when you’re camping.

Baxter began pouring drinks in a place called Jo-Jo’s Restaurant, in Queensland, back in the day when “you would go into a restaurant and ask for either white or red wine.”

Things have changed a lot since then, says Baxter, who embellished his resume and made his way to Dunblane, Scotland and discovered the importance of hospitality in a smaller community.

“It was an interesting town,” he tells By The Glass. “It had a pretty sordid history and there was a lot of alcoholic parents. It taught me a lot about the importance of the bartender in a very small community. The time spent in many bars across Brisbane, Melbourne, Sydney would pale in comparison.”

Since Scotland, Baxter’s fallen in love with Adelaide’s spirit and spirits, running Never Never Distilling Co. in Royal Park with friends George Georgiadis and Tim Boast out of Royal Park.

“What I decided to do, as opposed to opening a bar, was to explore the opportunity of potentially opening a distillery with a friend of mine that happened to be a distiller.”

Listen in to hear Baxter’s story, and get the hot tip on how to make cocktails while camping in the middle of the desert.

LISTEN TO PODCAST

Theme music courtesy of Max Savage
Image by By The Glass
Recorded live at Mache

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