2020 was a difficult year, that goes without saying. Life as we knew it changed almost overnight and we were thrown into what felt like the set of the latest Netflix horror series. Things that we had previously taken for granted were no longer an option, even simple things like going out for dinner or meeting a mate for a coffee were a thing of the past. Evenings with friends showing off your new shoes whilst frequenting the latest bars became Zoom parties in your pyjamas over a vodka and coke on the sofa. Life lost focus without the anchors we are so used to relying on to keep us grounded and every day quickly began to feel the same as the day before.
There was initially a flurry of online activity shared by artists who were unable to perform to their fans in person. Everything from bands collabing in their living rooms with a web cam and their favourite guitar to comedians using Skype and clips from their best live shows to try to satisfy our hunger for entertainment throughout lockdown. The opportunity to experience new performers actually became more accessible as the race to secure the best seats in the venue on the day they go on sale and the soaring cost of tickets, travel and drinks on the night turned into buying a link at the click of a button and a fraction of the price. You could take a gamble on spending £16 on an event by an artist that you might not think that you liked enough to spend £100 on two tickets for, just to find that you now can’t wait for their next tour.
We have always enjoyed the experience of going out, whether that be a quick dinner at the local pub after work or a meal and a concert in a different town. There are two things that drive this motivation in us; exploring new things and making time for each other and the people that we care about. Life is all about experiences and those who you choose to share them with and we strived to carry on this mindset throughout the pandemic. We took advantage of any opportunities that we came across for entertainment as restrictions increased, trying everything from online comedy nights and livestream concerts by artists we had never heard of before to live quizzes and online murder mysteries. We tried to make the best of the time that we had together, which led to some crazy nights dancing around our living room in our pyjamas and the development of new passions for artists we never knew we loved, and despite the restrictions we made some amazing memories.
As the old Monday morning conversations in the staff room at coffee break with colleagues about what you had done at the weekend turned into everyone asking on a Teams call what you had watched on television, we were surprised by how many people that we knew were not taking advantage of the same experiences that we were loving so much. Anniversaries, birthdays and other special milestones were passing without acknowledgement and date night had fallen by the wayside for many couples. We felt saddened that there seemed to be such a lack of awareness for the opportunities to create special memories at home and shocked by the number of people who felt that they were waiting for lockdown to end so that they could start to live their lives again. What about the here and now?
As the months passed we started to find ourselves that the opportunities for the online events that we were enjoying became much rarer. Live stream music was a lot harder to find, perhaps because of issues that we had ourselves experienced in trying to log in to some of the events, and online comedy was a thing of the past (although without seeing your audience to gauge their response to your humour this must be a difficult job). This made it even harder for people to set the time aside for a special event at home and we wanted to do something to help offer this opportunity to everyone.
We have always loved cocktails; a weekend wouldn’t be complete without one of us firing up the coffee machine to make an Espresso Martini (our signature cocktail!) and we are lucky to have a number of high quality cocktail bars close to home that we regularly frequent. During the last year we have joined in some online cocktail masterclasses and tasted some wonderful new drinks and picked up some great tips and tricks to move our own drinks to the next level. Whilst chatting over one of these cocktails at the end of an event we came up with the idea of creating a company to share both the drinks that we love and the sentiment of making time for each other. We want to share the importance of embracing the ‘now’ and not letting external factors outside of your control stopping you from having great times.
The best ideas are often born from passion and we hope that The Blind Badger Cocktail Company will help to inspire others not just to create amazing cocktails at home but also to grab the time that you have with the people that you love in both hands and make every day count.