🚀 Your Weekly Slice of UK Consumer Startups #13

“Kwenched makes premium saké cocktails. Our cocktails are a Spicy Saké Margarita and Saké Strawberry Daiquiri. Our cocktails are sulphite free, always natural, and never artificial. Made with award winning Japanese saké, we partner with a brewery that is only 1 of 4 to supply The Japanese Royal Family so we are royally appointed. This is your new favourite cocktail, you just don’t know it yet. Try it, get Kwenched, and the next thing you know, you’re obsessed.”

“We went through the motions with this one. Okay so the first thing we did was literally stop EVERYTHING and Faith sprinted to the nearest M&S and bought 2 of them so we could get our hands on them and of course sample them at home. We were also taken aback because so many people have told us over the last 2 years its too niche and wont make it to the big supermarkets (even though we always believed we could). It actually was an amazing sign for us that we are moving in the right direction and we are onto something. M&S is a legendary supermarket who certainly knows what they are doing so for us it actually wasn’t a bad thing, more so a sign of encouragement.”

“DO IT! If there is something in your gut where you know the branding is not quite right then you have to do it. Branding is the shop window to the customers and it is where you can tell your story through the art of design. Its everything. We have completely fallen in love with Kwenched in every way possible and that really happened over the 3 month period where we were re branding. I mean we were always in love with Kwenched but for the first time we fell in love with our branding. It felt like us. It was how we always dreamed of Kwenched showing up to the world. Really try to connect with the meaning of your brand. Why did you start the whole thing? Connect on a deeper level. We also connected with a graphic designer on a deeper level. Taylor Schultz, a graphic designer based in Sacramento, was our diamond in all of this. He taught us the art of being intentional with every inch of the branding. He really grilled us on what does Kwenched really mean to us and our customers. He also just had his honeymoon in Japan and his dream was to work with an alcohol company (where he hadn’t been given that opportunity before). So everything aligned… it was meant to be. Working with people who you love, trust and connect with is critical. Make sure you just trust your gut and do what you feel is right by you and your brand… remember, nobody knows your brand better than you!”

“I think pressure is individual to each person, so I know there are a lot of people that put pressure on themselves to always be online. I actually dont feel the pressure to always be on but more so the biggest pressure that I feel, or maybe that I put on myself is actually how I show up online. It took me quite a long time to get confident and comfortable with what content I was putting out there on Instagram and TikTok. I also put LinkedIn off for quite a long time, but when I got a little more confident with it all, posting on LinkedIn was the best thing I could have done for me personally and for Kwenched. The biggest impact it actually has had has been to myself. I enjoy it now. Showing up online, having fun with it and just trying to be myself. Authentic and genuine so people can connect with me, not just their screens. My advice would be for people to try not put so much pressure on themselves. The time will come where they will feel like they are confident with it. Just start somewhere. A little post on linkedin about how you feel. Or a post on insta or tiktok showing yourself or your brand. I believe in you. But whats more important is that you believe in yourself!”

“First of all we would love as many as people reading this to try our Spicy Saké Margarita and Saké Strawberry Daiquiri (because they really are amazing! 😊). Second, our mission is to make Saké mainstream, one cocktail at a time. Our goal is to get our cocktails on the shelves of the biggest and best supermarkets across the UK. Watch this space. Or I should say, watch the shelves!! 😝”