Forget the can and forget the bottle, because Quips has entered Australia’s RTD market as the world’s first cocktail party pouch – a format that feels far more at home at a music festival, house party or pre drinks than sitting beside the same predictable line up of RTDs that have dominated bottle O fridges for the last decade
What started with empty yoghurt pouches and some very questionable festival behaviour has evolved into one of Australia’s newest and more unexpected RTD launches.
Quips has taken your cocktail culture and squeezed it into the world’s first cocktail party pouch, launching with an 11% ABV and a non-carbonated format designed for festivals, house parties and the kind of long weekends where nobody wants to lug around an Esky full of melting ice and aluminium cans.
Founded by Sydney duo Joe McGaffin and Calvin Koder, Quips was born after the pair realised the humble spout pouch was arguably a better drinking vessel than half the products currently dominating Australia’s RTD aisle. Portable, resealable and freezer friendly, the format was initially inspired by the very Australian tradition of finding creative ways to sneak drinks into festivals before evolving into a legitimate business idea, which is either entrepreneurial brilliance or an excellent argument for why nobody should make business decisions after Beyond The Valley.
“Quips really came from that very Australian festival culture and we were honestly just sick of carrying around warm vodka and sugary, carbonated RTD’s that made us feel sick and bloated” says co-founder Calvin Koder. “Joe and I wanted something stronger and easier to drink with your mates, so we thought screw it, let’s make our own and put it in a pouch. That’s how Quips was born.”
What separates Quips from the growing rise of novelty alcohol launches is not just the pouch itself, but the fact the Sydney based founders own the manufacturing process entirely. Unable to find a supplier in Australia to fill pouches with alcohol, Joe and Calvin took matters into their own hands – sourcing their own pouch filling machinery and building the operation from the ground up. Using locally sourced juices alongside their own equipment, Quips is currently the only company in Australia producing alcohol in pouch format.
In a drinks category increasingly dominated by aggressively branded cans all promising ‘bar quality’ cocktails while largely tasting identical, the founders knew Quips would only work if the product itself actually held up, rather than simply relying on a pastel coloured can.
The launch range includes Tommy’s Margarita, tapping into Australia’s ongoing obsession with tequila and margaritas, alongside Raspberry Passionfruit Martini, which leans into the sweeter cocktail trend dominating Gen Z drinking culture. Mango Daiquiri rounds out the line-up using real mango nectar rather than artificial flavouring, which remains surprisingly uncommon across much of the RTD category.
Designed to be frozen, thrown into an Esky or consumed straight from the pouch, Quips feels less like a traditional RTD launch and more like an alcohol brand finally accepting Australians are not spending their weekends requesting cocktails from a man with suspenders and a smoked ice cube.
Quips is available online and at select independent retailers across Australia and retail for $29.99 AUD for a 4-pack. For more information on stockists please visit drinkquips.com