What's your favourite thing about the drink of your choice? The flavour? The process? The ingredients? Or maybe it’s what that drink brings along: the friends, the conversation, the laughs - in short, the community.
Our community extends well outside our Melbourne home, crossing state and national borders to include producers, distributors, sales reps, delivery drivers, warehouse staff, educators, venues, artists, bartenders, retail assistants, and dedicated patrons like you (to name a few) without whom we wouldn’t be where we are today.
This amazing network wasn’t near as vast when we started back in 2007 in the northeast Melbourne suburb of Thornbury, a quaint neighbourhood of California bungalows, single-story terrace houses, and a heap of independent businesses. In 2012 we moved up a block to our forever home, and two years later passersby eagerly watched as brick by brick the bar in our backroom was assembled by contractors and mates we continue to work with to this day.
We grew alongside our Thornbury neighbours, and our industry, and expanded outside our immediate surroundings as we built our online shop and Schmooze by Carwyn service. Our community thrived as we connected to people and producers around the globe and our web grew larger.
On any regular day, whether onshore or off, our community is ever inspiring and supporting one another to keep pushing boundaries. As you're all aware, this last year has been anything but 'regular' and we've watched with hopeful hearts as the industry and consumers rallied behind independent producers and their workers. From Brooklyn’s ‘All Together’ initiative to support a struggling hospitality industry (our iteration with Brick Lane and Maha Go was included in the May 2020 Beerthusiast), to the increase of sales and kind words to vineyards like Vinteloper devastated by bushfires, to the number of subscribers such as yourself who chose during a complex financial time to support independent businesses.
Our community is bottleshares, it is virtual festivals (such as the Carwyn Collaborational) and collaborating on recipes, it is education and introduction to a world you never knew was out there, it is long days and equally long nights, it is the infectious energy that surrounds you when you sit with a drink in hand engaging in meaningful or, the equally delightful, meaningless conversations you have with friends old and new in the flurried sounds of clinking glasses and gabble.
Without our community we would not be here. We would not be able to make, share, and drink what we love. You are our community, and for that we want to say thank you. We look forward to continuing this journey with you. See you next week. ♦
Is it getting a little misty in here?! Now that you're full of warm fuzzies, here's a peek at who's behind the scenes working on your Schmooze packs: Team Carwyn!