“We’re excited to be featuring some specially crafted @papasaltgin cocktails on our menu this summer!”
The Herald then learned Robbie had flown in for just 48 hours for the launch. As well as enjoying a long lunch at Onslow, she visited the rooftop at Seafarers before grabbing dinner at Bivacco for friend and fellow Papa Salt founder Regan Mass’s birthday.
The trade launch for the gin brand was held at Azabu in Mission Bay, and Robbie reportedly flew out for the US shortly afterwards.
Ahead of their arrival in New Zealand, Robbie, her husband Tom Ackerly and her Papa Salt co-founders Josey McNamara and Regan and Charlie Maas spoke to Viva via Zoom to chat all things gin.
Robbie told Rebecca Barry Hill the group’s friendship came together “weirdly and fortuitously”.
“We never had some big company come to us and say, ‘Hey, slap your names on this’. “It’s just the five of us,” she said.
The choice to launch Papa Salt in New Zealand was a conscious one, as it joins the 174 boutique New Zealand gins on offer here. According to Spirits NZ, it’s the fasted-growing spirit in the country.
The group spent much of the pandemic walking back and forth between their respective LA homes, where they drank gin in their backyards and ran creative experiments, according to Robbie, who recalled “all the little test tubes of different botanicals, mixing it with base spirits, not remembering any of it at the end”.
Papa Salt Coastal Gin officially launched in New Zealand yesterday and is now available in select liquor stores, bars and restaurants.
