The Perth-based company which makes the cult-like Shit The Bed hot sauce, is now pouring the drinks with a new range of cocktails.
Thing is, similar to how she got into hot sauces, Renae Bunster realised there was a “dire” problem in the ready-to-drink cocktail market in Australia.
“They’re all too small, too sugary, too weak, not properly packaged or just weird tasting. I was going to get diabetes from them before I got pissed,” she said.
“Why has no one mastered the art of a fresh bar quality cocktail in a can?”
Like the hot sauce, she decided to take matters into her own hands.
“If I thought all the hot sauces on the supermarket shelf were good enough, I would have never complained about them and got off my butt and made a better one. In a way I owe my whole business to being a complainer,” says Bunster.
“Back in the early days, I’d made a really delicious style of hot sauce and I thought it was perfect. But all of these complaining Man-Karens kept telling me to make one hotter. I finally got sick of their whinging and made one so hot I thought they wouldn’t be able to eat it,” she says.
“I wanted to shut them up once and for all”.
After crowdfunding initially got it off the ground, the sauce was a hit – becoming the number one hot sauce on Amazon in the US, and a regular feature on the US webseries Hot Ones.
In March, she used crowdfunding again to gauge interest in her better-than-bar quality cocktails in a can – the response was huge. Fans ponied up $1.25 million in just 37 hours.
Just months later, Bunster now has a range of 10 ready-to-drink cocktails.
“They’re fully Australian made with as much Aussie ingredients as possible like mangoes, strawberries, peaches, pink grapefruit, tomato, lime and lemon juice. I even added vitamins to them for a little extra help for the morning after, because they are 8% and have 2 drinks in every can, like a proper cocktail should,” she said.
One cocktail is even a nod to Renae’s complaining roots – the Bloody Karen.
“Why should Mary have all the fun?” she remarked.
Head here to check out the range and a special deal!
- Put any 10 cans in your basket
- Put code 10for100 and $50 will be taken off at checkout.
