There are some drinks made for sitting still.

Quips is not one of them.

This is a cocktail made for festivals, picnics, long weekends, beach bags, Eskies, park hangs and anywhere you want something fun to drink without carrying bottles, mixing ingredients or hoping someone remembered cups.

Founded by Sydney duo Joe McGaffin and Calvin Koder, Quips is a ready-to-drink cocktail pouch designed for the kind of social moments that happen outside: in a crowd, on a picnic rug, before the music starts, between sets, or when the Esky opens and everyone suddenly has an opinion.

The beauty of it is how easy it feels. You can drink it ice cold, pack it for the day or freeze it into a cocktail slushy. It is resealable, portable and made to move with you, which is exactly why the pouch format makes so much sense. It is not trying to turn a cocktail into something formal. It is making it more fun, more flexible and much easier to take along.

The launch range includes Tommy’s Margarita, Raspberry Passionfruit Martini and Mango Daiquiri. Tommy’s Margarita brings the tequila moment. Raspberry Passionfruit Martini gives the sweet, fruity cocktail energy. Mango Daiquiri is the sunny one.  the flavour that feels made for a picnic rug, a festival queue or a long afternoon that turns into night.

What makes Quips feel fresh is that it understands the real-life cocktail moment. Sometimes you do not want a full bar setup. Sometimes you want something that fits in the Esky, tastes good cold and does not make the day harder than it needs to be.

Quips started with the idea of making drinks more portable for festivals, then became a bigger project when McGaffin and Koder realised no one in Australia could fill alcohol pouches for them. So they built the operation themselves, sourcing machinery and creating a new production pathway.

That is the part we wanted to know more about: how two founders turned a clever outdoor-drinking idea into a real brand, why the pouch belongs at festivals and picnics, and what it takes to create something that feels genuinely new.

We Asked Quips Founders Joe McGaffin And Calvin Koder

Quips feels made for festivals, picnics and outdoor social moments. Was that always the idea from the beginning?

The idea came from sneaking drinks into music festivals. It’s almost a rite of passage for young Australians trying to save a bit of money, and one of the most common tricks is using yoghurt pouches. One day we looked at that and thought, why doesn’t a product like this actually exist? The format made so much sense for festivals and outdoor events. It was lightweight, portable, easy to carry and didn’t take up much space in an Esky.

Festivals were definitely the original inspiration, but we quickly realised the same thing applied to beach days, picnics, boat days, camping trips and backyard parties. What started as a festival idea became a much bigger opportunity.

What was the first moment where you realised the pouch format could become a real brand?

After coming up with the initial concept, we had some leftover pouches from a music festival and decided to test the idea properly. We threw a New Year’s Eve party at our warehouse, bought a small filling machine and some blank pouches from an overseas supplier, and filled around 500 pouches ourselves.

They were all drunk immediately (the free alcohol probably helped) and everyone loved the format. Everyone was talking about how easy it was to drink, how easy it was to carry around, and how it just made sense. After that is when we decided to try make the idea into a brand.

What made you want to bring proper cocktail flavours into a format people could throw into an Esky or take on the go?

We felt there was a real gap in the market. RTDs have been dominated by seltzers and fizzy drinks for years, but when people go to a bar they’re still ordering Margaritas, Martinis and Daiquiris. We wanted to create something that delivered the flavour and experience of a cocktail without sacrificing convenience.

The original idea was to create the perfect drink for festivals, but the more we explored the pouch format, the more benefits we discovered. It’s lightweight, takes up less space in an Esky, is easy to carry around, resealable, doesn’t break like glass and is incredibly convenient for outdoor occasions. Once we started thinking about beach days, picnics, camping trips, boat days and backyard parties, it became obvious that the format solved a lot of problems beyond just festivals.

The launch range includes Tommy’s Margarita, Raspberry Passionfruit Martini and Mango Daiquiri. Why were these the right three flavours to start with?

The Tommy’s Margarita was the obvious starting point. It’s one of Australia’s most popular cocktails and we felt there was an opportunity to create a version that was portable, convenient and still delivered on flavour.

The Raspberry Passionfruit Martini was inspired by a cocktail at my favourite restaurant. We wanted something sweeter and fruitier to balance the range, and despite raspberry and passionfruit being incredibly popular flavours individually, they weren’t commonly paired together in RTDs. We knew it would be a winner, and it’s since become our best-selling flavour.

The Mango Daiquiri came from a similar philosophy. We use real mango nectar rather than mango flavouring, which is relatively uncommon in the RTD category. You can immediately taste the difference. Mango nectar is one of the most popular juices on supermarket shelves, yet there wasn’t really an alcoholic equivalent available. Around the same time, Joe developed a slight obsession with Mango Daiquiris while we were in Bali so that probably helped too. 

Mango Daiquiri feels like it was made for a picnic rug. What makes that flavour special?

What makes this one special is how authentic it tastes. We use real Australian mango nectar, whereas most RTDs use mango flavouring that doesn’t really taste like an actual mango.

Using real nectar gives it a richness and texture that you just can’t replicate with flavourings alone. It has that thicker mouthfeel and juicy mango character that makes it feel much closer to a freshly made cocktail.

We also use white rum, which isn’t that common in RTDs. That gives it a genuine Daiquiri profile rather than just being another tropical-flavoured alcoholic drink.

How do you make sure Quips feels fun and easy without compromising on taste?

We never wanted Quips to be a gimmick. The pouch gets people interested, but the reason they buy it again is because it tastes great.

From day one we’ve put a huge amount of effort into the liquid itself. We use real ingredients wherever we can and spend a lot of time refining flavours until they taste exactly how we want them to. Sometimes that makes the product harder or more expensive to produce, but we think it’s worth it.

At the end of the day, repeat purchases and loyal customers only come from making something people genuinely enjoy drinking. You can get someone to try a product once because it’s different, but they’ll only come back if they love the taste.

What was the biggest challenge in creating an alcohol pouch in Australia?

Without a doubt, manufacturing. When we started, there wasn’t really an existing pathway to produce a product like Quips in Australia. We spent years trying different approaches, working with different suppliers and solving problems that nobody had really solved before.

At various points we had manufacturers pull out, equipment delays and plenty of moments where it would have been easier to give up and launch a product in a can instead. But we believed in the pouch.

Looking back, the biggest challenge was building the production pathway itself. The good news is that once you’ve done it, it’s not something that can be easily replicated overnight so we have a bit of a head start!

When you realised you had to build the production pathway yourselves, what gave you the confidence to keep going?

To be honest, a lot of the confidence came from the fact that it was so hard. We spent years trying to get Quips made and at times it felt like every possible obstacle got thrown at us.

We knew that consumers wanted a product like this and the fact that there were all these challenges, it really showed us that there was a true gap in the market as no one had gone through these hurdles. 

We also knew that if it was this difficult to bring to life, it would create a head start once we got there. Building something new is never easy, but that’s often what makes it worth doing.

Where is the dream festival or outdoor moment to see someone pull out a Quips?

We’re big festival people, so for us it would probably have to be Lost Paradise. We’ve spent some incredible New Year’s weekends there over the years and it’s one of those festivals that really captures the kind of experience Quips was built for.

Seeing someone pull a Quips out of their bag while on the dance floor at Lost Disco would be a pretty surreal full-circle moment. Hopefully one day we can work something out with the team at Finely Tuned and make that happen.

The brand feels playful but still polished. How did you shape that personality?

We always wanted Quips to feel authentic to who we are. At its core, the brand is about having fun and not taking everything too seriously. There are plenty of brands out there telling people how to live healthier, optimise every part of their lives or be the best version of themselves. We’re just focused on helping people have a good time.

A big part of that comes through in our content. Joe owns a video production company, which means we can create really high-quality content in-house, but we also have Annie on the team who is fantastic at creating more playful, social-first content that captures the personality of the brand.

That combination allows us to strike a balance between polished and fun. We want Quips to look great, but we never want it to feel overly corporate or like it’s trying too hard. We think people connect with brands that feel genuine, and that’s always been our approach.

What have you learned from building something that is genuinely different in the drinks space?

One thing we’ve learned is that whenever you introduce something genuinely new, there’s always going to be some initial apprehension. People naturally compare it to what already exists, and in Australia especially, the drinks market is dominated by a handful of large players where true format innovation is pretty rare. Retailers and consumers have become accustomed to the status quo.

What surprised us was how quickly consumers embraced something different. Quips has resonated almost immediately because people are genuinely looking for new experiences and products that stand out from the crowd.

It’s also taught us to trust our instincts. We’ve never been big believers in endless rounds of testing, focus groups and over-analysing every decision before launch. Sometimes you have to back your vision, put it out into the world and see what happens. If we’d listened to every reason why Quips wouldn’t work, it probably never would have launched in the first place.

Are there more flavours you are already dreaming about?

Absolutely. We have two new flavours launching later this year and plenty more ideas behind them.

One of the advantages of being an independent company is that we can move really quickly. We don’t need to spend years running focus groups or building flavours based on what was popular 12 months ago. If we get excited about a flavour combination, we can actually go and create it.

That’s a big part of what makes Quips fun. We’re constantly trying to stay ahead of where consumer tastes are going rather than following where they’ve already been. So there are definitely plenty more flavours in the pipeline.

What is next for Quips?

We’re still at the very beginning of what we think Quips can become. Over the next 12 months our focus is on continuing to grow across Australia, launching new flavours and expanding into more retailers and venues.

The big milestone for us is our US launch later this year. From day one, we’ve always felt the product was built with a global audience in mind, and we’re excited to see how it resonates in a market that’s always looking for what’s next.

Beyond that, we’re just focused on continuing to innovate. Whether that’s new flavours, new partnerships or new occasions for people to enjoy Quips, we want to keep pushing the category forward and building a brand that people genuinely love.