A StrangeLove Story

Like all great, dysfunctional things StrangeLove started in Byron Bay in 2012. Our original mission was to not be unemployed like everyone else in Byron. Our secondary mission was to create exciting & interesting non-alcoholic drinks. Drinks with big flavours and great packaging, that didn’t taste like the colour blue.

Our first drink – released in 2013 - was an Organic Ginger Beer Energy Elixir. As you can tell by the last sentence, we had absolutely no idea what we were doing. However, we knew what a ginger beer should taste like. So, with little regard for hifalutin concepts like “profit” and “cash flow”, we packed so much ginger into our first product it clogged up the multi-million dollar production line we borrowed to bottle it. After the lawsuit, people told us they really enjoyed the drink and that it tasted very gingery. Success!

By creating a Ginger Beer so hot it was almost undrinkable we soon realised that there were a lot of really messed up people out there who like to suffer when consuming a beverage.

So we made more of them. In 2015 we added flavours like Smoked Cola, Bitter Grapefruit and Blood Orange & Chilli to the range. People told us at the time we were “innovating in the adult soft drink space” but we have never thought of ourselves us adults. We soon developed a cult following though which was ironic because there were lots of actual cults in Byron Bay, some of whom we had previously suspected of following us.

The say in a gold rush sell shovels. Well, in a gin boom, if there are no shovels to sell, tonic water is a great substitute. We released our Premium Mixer Range in 2016, just as the Craft Spirits industry was exploding. Having originally started a brand to serve as an exciting alternative to alcohol we were now serving as a brand to make alcohol more exciting. Ginception.

Honestly, I can’t keep up with this. First everyone decides they need 335 gin brands, then they decide they are going to quit drinking. Fortunately, we kept to our roots, releasing our award-winning Lo-Cal Sodas in 2018 to almost no fanfare whatsoever. If there was every a way to make being the designated driver more exciting – it was our Lo-Cal Sodas.

Currently StrangeLove can be found in some of Australia’s best eateries, wineries, distilleries, hotels, dive bars and premium retailers. We’ve maintained a passion for making interesting drinks with a focus on exceptionally good ingredients. It’s ten years from our first drink and in many ways our story is just beginning…