The Papa Salt Team Just Wanted a Drink. Now They Have a Suite of Industry-Leading Products

Five friends walk into a pub – and order a round of shit G&Ts.

It happens every day. But these are no ordinary friends. 

Margot Robbie, Tom Ackerley, Josey McNamara, and Charlie and Regan Maas have known each other for over a decade. Margot and Regan met on a film set. Charlie is Regan’s husband. Tom and Margot are married, and they run film production company Lucky Chap alongside their friend and former flatmate Josey.

Amid busy careers and seriously hectic schedules, the five co-founded Papa Salt in 2023.

“At the core of the company is a friendship we build around drinking gin,” says Regan.

“We all kind of met drinking very bad gin and tonics in London in bad pubs. Margot would put a rooibos tea bag in her G&T to give them a bit more flavour. I can say confidently, it’s our spirit of choice,” says Tom.

It’s brewed in collaboration with Lord Byron distillery, a zero-waste distillery run by an environmental engineer.

“It was really important to me that we distil Papa Salt in Australia,” says Margot. “Not just because I love having more reasons to come home, but because I feel Aussies are very discerning gin drinkers. [Because] so many excellent craft gins are created in Australia, I felt like the bar would be set high. If Papa Salt could do well in such a crowded market like Australia, then I’d feel confident to take it to other countries. Distilling in Australia also opened up the opportunity to use Aussie botanicals.”

Papa Salt now has its own distillery next door to the Lord Byron facility.

The name – Papa Salt – comes from an Aussie that Tom, Margot and Josey met while drinking at The Doctor’s House in Matara, Sri Lanka.

“He rocks up and he looks like Santa Claus in a Hawaiian shirt,” says Josey. “He regaled us with all these stories about how many times he’d been shipwrecked.” The story’s reflected in the bottle’s frosted-sea-glass look.

After launching in Australia and New Zealand – and expanding to a global market – Papa Salt has continued to go from strength to strength and change to meet the market.

“When we launched in Australia, we found one of the biggest cocktails that bartenders were gravitating towards was the Paloma,” says Josey. Their first RTD the Papa Salt Paloma, was “the natural progression from that”.

Their newest launch – a Papa Salt and Blood Orange Spritz made in collaboration with Fever Tree – was an obvious next step. Papa Salt is a sessionable spirit – and the team had realised that cans were what barbeques, sporting events and beach days called for.

Their ideal serve of Papa Salt always had a wedge of blood orange, which plays off the fresh orange peel in its botanical mix.

“We thought, ‘If we could get Fever Tree, the biggest premium mixer company in the world, to partner with us, that would be a really nice sign of quality in the can’. We told them about the blood orange and soda. You could see their heads started to spin, because they have a really beautiful blood orange soda that’s one of their best-selling mixers outside of tonic.”

“The Blood Orange Spritz has become a staple in our fridge,” said Margot. “It’s like a lighter Aperol Spritz, similar flavour but without the calories. They go down so easily.”

The cans have launched in time for Australian summer, retailing at $8.99 for a can, $26.99 for a four-pack or around $125 for a case. Each can sits at five per cent ABV. With just 105 calories a can, the Blood Orange Gin Spritz has less sugar than many other spritzes.

So, what’s next for the gin that was born from shitty pub serves and grew to become one of Australia’s most recognisable premium spirits?

A well-deserved break – maybe. But probably not.

“If you’d have asked us if we were going to do the RTDs a couple years ago, we probably would have said no,” says Tom. “Then, we fell in love with that. Whilst we have no intention, or plans, to do anything else, we follow what we love. You know, we didn’t plan on making a gin seven years ago, and then we made a gin. It was great fun. I don’t think you’re gonna see seven different flavoured Papa Salts in the next few years, but our intention is to make Papa Salt a household gin. But that’s not to say that we don't love all the variances that we can have fun with.”

“Everyone has their own pet project idea. I’m sitting here looking at Tom’s own infusion bottle he’s creating,” said Charlie, gesturing towards a Papa Salt bottle packed with herbs and scrawled across with the sharpie label Papa Dill.

“I’ve got a thought bouncing around that I can’t quite share at this point,” Charlie continues. “We’re not working on anything new, but when you get five people who love to create things –”

“ – and love gin,” adds Regan.

Things don’t stay quiet for long. New projects are inevitable but – until then – there’s the Blood Orange Spritz to tide us over.

Papa Salt’s Blood Orange Spritz is available at bottle stores across Australia. Head here to find your nearest stockist.

@papasaltgin