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Mark’s adventure with flairbartending began by accident, but quickly turned into a passion, which in time resulted in the creation of his own brand of mixers. Trained as a waiter, he took his first steps in the profession at an inn in Bielsko-Biala, where he became fascinated with the art of bottle tossing. An unexpected encounter with flairbartending and inspiration while preparing homemade drinks for a friend became the impetus for founding Mix Me. This brand, based on natural ingredients, is revolutionizing the market of non-alcoholic cocktails, proving that they can be as attractive as those with alcohol.So we encourage you to read the interesting story
Marek, how did your journey with flair bartending begin, and what inspired you to start your own brand of mixers?
My path to becoming a bartender was quite accidental. I never thought I could become one. I went to a hospitality and tourism technical school thinking tourism was for me and that’s what excited me, but it turned out there was more hospitality involved, so I learned how to be a
waiter, not a tour guide. With these skills, at 18, I got a weekend job as a waiter at an inn in Bielsko-Biała, where I saw bartenders juggling bottles! Out of pure curiosity, I started trying to juggle bottles myself, and three months later, there was a big national flair competition held at that inn… Coincidence? A similar ‘coincidence’ story applies to Mix Me. If our friend hadn’t paid a few hundred zlotys to hire a bartender for the evening, I wouldn’t have made her cordials for her birthday party, and she wouldn’t have called saying, “Marek, the drinks were great, it was a fantastic idea! It’s a shame there’s nothing like this on the market”… And that’s how the seed was planted.
How do Mix Me mixers impact the taste and quality of non-alcoholic cocktails?
Mix Me blends fruits, spices, herbs, and flowers, without any alcohol content, so combining them with water, tonic, or 0% prosecco gives us a nice multi-ingredient cocktail with a natural taste. There are no chemical dyes, added flavors, or preservatives, so if we like the taste of natural products and care about the highest quality, Mix Me offers just that.
Do you think that well-chosen mixers can make non-alcoholic cocktails just as attractive as those with alcohol?
Absolutely. To the extent that when I recently served drinks with 0% gin, some people repeatedly asked me, “Are you sure there’s no alcohol in this drink?” because they couldn’t believe that non-alcoholic cocktails, or mocktails, could taste so good. Non-alcoholic products nowadays can be of such high quality and original taste that people who drink non-alcoholic drinks certainly won’t feel disadvantaged compared to those who consume alcoholic cocktails.
What are your favorite non-alcoholic cocktail compositions using Mix Me mixers?
I have two that I often enjoy. I like bitter-citrus flavors, so I’m a fan of Mix Me Cherry Bitter, which pairs well with tonic and a squeezed slice of grapefruit. When it’s a Saturday afternoon party vibe where I don’t consume alcohol, Mix Me Fresh combined with 0% prosecco is a hit for me. It has to have a squeezed little lime peel, which enhances its freshness. It’s light and very pleasant.
Which Mix Me mixers do you recommend for rum cocktails and why?
Mix Me Tropical and Mango Punch are flavors that love being mixed with rum. Why? Because they contain ingredients that pair excellently with rums, such as passion fruit and mango or ginger, which are often found in rum-based Tiki drinks. Lime is almost in all popular
rum drinks like Daiquiri, Cuba Libre, or Dark & Stormy. Vanilla, I don’t even have to mention, is found in thousands of different rums. This sounds good on paper, though I must admit, I’m a fan of combining white rums with Mix Me Fresh, but more on that in the next question.
Can you share the recipe for your favorite rum cocktail using Mix Me mixers?
Sure. Although initially, Tiki Boom was my favorite:
• 80 ml Mix Me Mango Punch,
• 40 ml white rum,
• 20 ml overproof rum,
nowadays, I’m a fan of a drink that I haven’t named yet. It includes:
• 60 ml Mix Me Fresh,
• 40 ml white rum,
• 2.5 ml bergamot liqueur.
We shake it all with ice and strain it into a stem glass. Finally, and this is important, we add a squeezed grapefruit peel. It’s light, aromatic, lime, refreshing, floral, citrusy, rum-flavored, and, for me and hundreds of people I’ve served it to, very pleasant. It’s one of those drinks where people say, “One more, please.” Maybe someone reading this can suggest a good name?
What are your future plans for the Mix-Me brand, and what new projects can we expect?
A month ago, we launched Mix Me HoReCa, which are the same but slightly sweeter Mix Me flavors targeted at the hospitality industry in 3-liter packages (BiB bags with a tap). So, we will now try to develop the brand for both retail and gastronomy. I have plans to release new flavors and expand into foreign markets, but those are quite distant topics.
How do you assess the impact of the Mix-Me brand on the development of cocktail culture, especially in the context of non-alcoholic cocktails?
It’s probably still too early to assess our impact on the development of cocktail culture, but as far as we operate on social media, festivals, workshops, and presentations, we see that the content we present is met with enthusiasm and great interest. The development of nonalcoholic cocktail culture is growing at an incredible rate every year, so it’s very important to provide the right knowledge and present interesting flavors to new testers soon. Otherwise, many people will be put off by mocktails and will say the same thing they say about alcoholic drinks: “I don’t drink cocktails because I don’t like sweet things/I don’t like mixing.” But cocktails don’t have to be sweet or mixed with a ton of other ingredients.
Do you observe that more and more people are choosing non-alcoholic cocktails, and how can your products support this trend?
Of course, this trend is called NoLo, which stands for no-alcohol, low-alcohol. It is a trend moving towards consuming non-alcoholic or low-alcohol drinks. Mix Me was created with this in mind, so it perfectly fits into the current development of NoLo. When we were working on creating Mix Me, my partner Patrycja was pregnant and felt disadvantaged that I could drink something different with unusual flavors while she was left with tea and sodas, and when she did want to have a drink, it had to contain some chemical, sweet syrup. That’s why we created Mix Me, which is high-quality, natural, and aimed at both alcohol drinkers and non-drinkers. Just mix Mix Me with sparkling water, tonic, or 0% prosecco, and in two simple steps, we have an interesting, high-quality mocktail with unique flavors. Thanks for the invitation to the conversation, happy mixing! Marek
