Ahead of The 2024 edition The World’s Best Bars, which takes place in Madrid this October, head of content Emma Sleight talks to Sam Bygrave about how the World's 50 Best Bars list actually works and dispels a few rumours along the way, and shares some insight into what is one of the drinks world’s unique jobs — there really is nothing like it.

I’ve got a little bonus episode for you this week, I’n talking Sean baxter and George Georgiadis of the little Australian producer that got started in 2016, Never Never Distilling Co — and I’m talking to them because on May 1st the news broke that they had been acquired by Asahi Beverages here in Australia. It’s huge news and represents a big investment in the brand, it’s one that bartenders I think have been big supporters of since they got started, I’ve interviewed Sean before — he’s always great chat — but I wanted to talk to them to talk through what a deal like this involves, and I asked them a couple times to share the price of the deal — you can hear how effective that was or wasn’t for yourself. A quick disclaimer too, Never Never is the sponsor of the Best Bar award for the Boothby Best Bars events in Queensland, NSW, and Victoria this year, and they’re a sponsor of the Bartenders Weekender up in Brisbane which, yes, is kicking off on Sunday — Sean talks a bit about that as well.

Today’s episode is an interesting panel discussion that I hosted at Paramount Liquor’s Future Proof event in Adelaide back at the start of April, with writer, YouTuber, bartender and now co-owner of Melbourne bar, Goodwater, Cara Devine — and with Sean Baxter, the co-founder of Never Never Distilling Co., a brand based in McLaren Vale and one that has been in the news recently — more on that in a moment. It’s a discussion all about how they built their brands, and there are lessons in there whether you’re wanting to develop a booze brand, open a bar, or indeed boost your career and work on — for want of a better term — your personal brand.

Never Never was in the news last week, The Shout reported that the small gin-focused distillery, a favourite among bartenders, had been wholly acquired by Asahi Beverages here. That news came through after this panel chat, obviously, so we don’t get into that in this discussion, but I guess it just highlights that Sean and the folks at never Never have done a good job of building their brand.

https://www.bartendersweekender.com/

https://www.boothby.com.au/