We asked TANICA Founder, Adriane McDermott about what inspired her to start her own spritz brand.
Was there a "lightbulb" moment?
I moved to Sydney a long time ago from America and quickly fell in love with the beachy lifestyle, the food, the places to go out, the people, my Australian husband, the blue sky - everything, really! It’s amazing that so many people dream of coming here, and how few actually do it. My motivation for starting TANICA is to show people, even the ones that live here, just how special Australia is. And to be really proud of it.
As I got older and further down the track in my career, I realised it’s much more fulfilling to be grateful for what you have, rather than longing for something you don’t. It wasn’t really a lightbulb moment as much as wanting to have more joy in my life through finally doing my own thing, and to inspire a new appreciation for what we have around us.
I’ve always felt excited about the anticipation of afternoons in Sydney amongst friends and family where the place, the drinks and the moment feels special. There’s nothing like a long session with people you love in the setting sun with water views and a great drink in hand. So, I sought to make a spritz that captures the feeling of what it’s like to live here, all in and at ease at the same time. Sophisticated yet supremely relaxed. A celebration of both our coastal-loving lifestyle and the native botanicals of Australia.
Have you always had a passion for the industry, or is this a new adventure?
One of the best jobs I ever had was working at Diageo in my early 30s, one of the world's biggest and best alcoholic beverage companies. I learned to love Australian icons like Bundy, Dry & Lime during the sponsorship of the Rugby World Cup in 2003. After spending a year as a NSW Sales Manager, I was tasked with spirits category development and shopper insights, planning out spirits shelves, RTD fridges and the best signage for bars. My time at Diageo was memorable because I was fascinated with consumer marketing and they are experts in brand building and innovation. It was also a fantastic group of colleagues (close friends, really) who have stayed in touch and continued to do great things in the industry
here in Australia and abroad. I left the industry to move back to the U.S. and join Nike in the headquarters in Portland, Oregon as the head of retail marketing for the Asia Pacific during the Beijing Olympics in 2008 and then in a global role in Nike running. When I returned to Australia 13 years ago, with a lot more knowledge and experience in retail, I shifted gears into the fashion industry (and then pet care of all things!) working in senior marketing roles at David Jones, CAMILLA, Seafolly, and Petbarn.
It was during COVID in early 2020 when I first started to think about TANICA. Like so many of us, I found myself ordering cocktail supplies at home and overindulging on G&Ts for Zoom-call happy hours. The original idea was to create a low alcohol spirit that was a bit better-for-you with the same gin-y vibes as a full strength spirit. For the first two years, this was the first TANICA I brought to market. A pretty, pink bottle that disrupted the spirits category, but it only got as far as selling at markets and online.
The reason I pivoted to reformulate the TANICA you know today was based on feedback from consumers and trade. People told us that what they really wanted was a way to enjoy great tasting daytime cocktails without compromising taste or experience. As it turned out, I learned moderation in cocktails is really about embracing the spritz occasion.
What’s one misconception people have about starting a business in the spirits industry?
First, it’s pretty hard to make an amazing tasting liquid on scale. It takes time, talent, resources and a great palette. I’m very lucky that we found a partner who is a truly experienced distiller who understood my vision and was able to translate it to a gold medal, award-winning aperitif. The first thing he did was send me to the Sydney Botanic Gardens to identify the natives that I loved and wanted to put into TANICA.
Second, it’s not just about the liquid. That’s only the entry point. What makes TANICA unique is that we are obsessed with building and listening to our community. I’ve personally done over 9,000 samplings of TANICA at events in the first 6 months alone. The misconception is that “a good product will sell itself.” Not true. It takes a lot of passion and hoofing around doing events, sales visits and tastings to get the first few lucky breaks. We don’t just have a marketing strategy, we have a market strategy. You have to build your own demand, not sit back, appoint a distributor and wait for it.
What big dreams do you have for TANICA? Where do you see it in 10 years?
I want nothing more than to see TANICA succeed on the world stage. To put the good-nature of Australian lifestyle and botanicals into the spritz occasion everywhere, just like the Italians have done for Aperol. It would mean so much to me to have friends and family back in America finally understand why I moved to Australia so many years ago, and why I stayed. I feel like TANICA has the potential to give people a taste of what it feels like to live, drink, and spend time in Australia. And for those who live here, to truly appreciate what we have in our own backyard.