For Tanica founder Adriane McDermott, swapping life as a ‘ginfluencer’ to starting her own aperitif label felt like a natural next step for someone who hung onto every botanical note at the bar.
McDermott spent her formative years growing up in New York, and now calls Sydney home. She’s all about tapping into the unhurried moment of drinking a spritz without the messy consequence of a hangover.
“Aperitivo hour is absolutely the best time of the day,” says Adriane McDermott.
“It’s permission to enjoy an unhurried moment with people that make you happy, pretty drinks and a cheese-and-olive kind of dinner. Plus, you can be home in bed by 9pm,” she says.
Tanica was three years in the making, and one she felt was an untapped in the Australia market.
“As someone who migrated to Sydney a long time ago, I started Tanica as an appreciation for the lifestyle and botanicals we seem to overlook in our own backyard,” she says.
“Our coastal way of living, all-in and at ease at the same time, is the kind of balance that’s really aspirational today,” she says. “I am really grateful for it personally, and it deserves to be celebrated. The aim is putting the lifestyle and native flavours of Australia into the spritz occasion and make it accessible to people everywhere.”
Adriane McDermott talks to The Write Drop for our At The Bar series.
MY CITY
It’s got to be New York City. Growing up and living around New York City is how I spent the first 24 years of my life before I moved to Sydney, so it’s like a piece of me that beats in the background. I love it because it’s gritty, theatrical and full of possibilities.
FOOD MEMORY
The first time I ever tried grilled Balmain bugs in Australia was at the Sydney Fish Markets in Pyrmont. I remember thinking to myself – who dreamed this thing up? It’s like a lobster, but all tail. I think this is when I decided to make Sydney my home.
FAVOURITE BAR
My go-to in the Manly area where I live would have to Pocket Pizza for an Aperitivi Compot cocktail. It’s made with TANICA, Limoncello, Lillet, Lemon and Tonic in a tall glass. Yum. In the city, I’d say my new favourite is Old Loves for a Rhum Agricole and freshly squeezed sugar cane juice. I love sitting at a long bar you can perch up, watch drinks being made, marvel at a wall of spirits from around the world and try different things. I always say I’m just a person, not a bartender. So, I like learning by chatting and watching what they do.
DRINK THAT DESCRIBES YOU
TANICA Spritz, of course. Refreshingly different and approachable. Sophisticated yet supremely relaxed. But there’s more under the surface…complexity, balance and layers of care & creativity.
BEST HANGOVER CURE
A crispy chicken schnitzel and very salty, thin shoestring fries. Aioli and tomato sauce. Lots of water.
BEST INTERSTATE BAR
Kirra Beach House in Coolangatta, Gold Coast. They were one of the first bar’s outside of NSW to support TANICA. The bar manager Bree is full of energy and ideas and has created two amazing cocktails with TANICA for the next menu, one is an Australiano Negroni with rhubarb vermouth and a citrus gin that’s to die for. The venue pumps on the weekends, always seems to be blue-skied, has private cabanas and overlooks the beach with the most amazing sunsets. It’s like a TANICA mood board in real life.
FAVOURITE WINE
I’ve been really into Das Juice Pet Nat recently. Plus, I admire their bold colours and branding, I’m a sucker for that kind of stuff. Label design is everything. The Prosecco is one of my favourites mixed with TANICA as a spritz when we have friends over or with my daughters at home.
FAVOURITE DISTILLERY
I highly recommend the Husk Distillery tour in Tumbulgum NSW in the Tweed Valley. You get the behind-the-scenes tour and story of how Ink Gin and Husk rum were created, with farm animals, cane fields and tastings along the way.
NEXT DESTINATION
I’m back to Queensland in about a month for sales visits from Byron Bay up to Noosa. One of the best parts of my job is visiting as many great bars and restaurants as possible along the coast of Australia and asking them to taste TANICA. They almost always love it, so it’s a real buzz. Plus, I get to decide where to go, like plotting a new frontier. After over 25 years behind a desk in marketing, I wouldn’t trade it now for the world.
SUM UP THE LAST THREE YEARS OF MAKING TANICA
Working countless market stalls and meeting thousands of people, mostly women, in my desire to evolve Tanica into the daytime cocktail of Australia. It’s a female-founded brand, and a way to give more women their day in the sun. I love building a community of people who support our brand, including our 5,000+ followers on Instagram already. Plus Kim Kupsch, from the family-owned farm in Upper Burringbar NSW, who hand-harvests our Davidson’s Plum without the use of chemicals or pesticides. We also selected the first three female bartenders from Sydney to be our brand ambassadors and develop Tanica cocktails as well as be featured in our content.
WORKING WITH SHAUN BYRNE FROM MAIDENII
In May 2023, a year after marketing our first edition of Tanica, I was fortunate to be accepted into an accelerator program with Distill Ventures. The program afforded us the opportunity to conduct research, refine the brand assets, and invest in producing a world-class distilled aperitif. When I went to look for a partner in the industry, I came across a book Shaun Byrne wrote with Nick Tesar called All Day Cocktails, (Low and No Alcohol Magic). Magic at a lower strength ABV was what I wanted – and Shaun literally wrote the book on it.
After reaching out to Shaun, we spent almost a year working together to develop the recipe for Tanica, culminating in winning a gold medal at San Francisco World Spirits Competition in March 2024 and relaunching to the trade a month after. He is brilliant with sharing his knowledge and with producing fruit-laden spirits. He has innovated two or three new techniques for Tanica to arrive at what he calls, “fresher flavour flavours” and “quality at every level” in our liquid. I am forever grateful for his years of experience both behind the bar and beside the still.
YOUR FAVE APERITIVO BEFORE TANICA WAS BORN
Before Tanica, I named myself a ‘ginfluencer’ and had a ‘ginstagram’ called Ginfolly. I used to go around to gin events handing out my card and asking for samples to review. I loved (and still admire) Australian gins for their rare botanical profiles and the bravery of so many great producers here. My favourite gin is Applewood from SA, mainly because of their use of bush ingredients, like strawberry gum leaf, which we also use in our base spirit for Tanica. It’s naturally sweet, herbaceous and gives spirits a cherry aroma that’s distinctively Australian to me. I’m also a big fan of Shaun’s Maiidenii sweet and classic vermouth, Dave Verheul’s Saison Aperitifs and vermouths, and the Marionette range of liqueurs. Any of these on ice with a slice of orange and splash of soda is heaven to me.
