A range of drink-at-home cocktails, invented in Birmingham, require you to shake, not stir. Richard McComb reports.
During his work in real estate investment, Nick Wall travelled the world on business and often found himself holed up in hotel cocktail bars.
He acquired a connoisseur’s taste for a classic martini and a well-mixed mojito but was baffled why such drinks weren’t available, ready to mix, for cocktail devotees in their homes.
So Nick decided to do just that, setting up his own business, based in Birmingham, producing a range of high-end drinks that he says wouldn’t be out of place in a swanky city bar.
The idea chimed perfectly with popular culture fashion trends, riding on the back of cocktail consumption in films such as Sex and the City and cool television dramas such as Mad Men, where the prevalence of Old Fashioneds and Manhattans is matched only by the regularity of smoking.
Nick, who grew up in Edgbaston, set up Tails as a producer of DIY cocktails, authentically packaged in their very own shakers. The drinks are ideal for home entertaining, from house parties to intimate dinners for two. With Valentine’s Day almost upon us, Tails should add a shake of glamour to a romantic soiree.
“I am very much a cocktail fan,” says Nick, who, as luck would have it, celebrates his (32nd) birthday on Valentine’s Day.
“At the time I conceived the idea I was drinking in cocktail bars. One day I was sitting in the bath and I said to myself, ‘Can I drink the same quality of cocktails at home without paying the same price that good cocktails demand?’ The answer was ‘no.’
“I wanted to be able to drink good cocktails at home but there weren’t any available.”
Nick also latched on to the trend for home drinking, sparked by the recession. People are now more inclined to have a snifter before heading out for dinner, saving on drinks bills. Combined with the public’s renewed taste for cocktails and the higher profile given to food and drink in general, thanks to TV cookery shows, Nick sniffed a market opportunity.
