Miracle Drink Bar

Miracle Drink Bar was my first venture into business, having to start everything from scratch. If you’ve read my previous post ↗ on my part-time job, you’ll know that’s where I acquired my bartending skills. Bartending at that time was really fun for me as I got to see my creations transform into drinks that could be enjoyed by many.

After that job, I ventured into other part-time jobs in this sector, which landed me opportunities to work in well-established bars such as Bar Rouge at Swissotel The Stamford and CÉ LA VI.

With these skills, I started thinking about what else I could do besides bartending at a bar. This is when an idea popped into my head.

Seeing my friends' IG stories celebrating birthdays, I realized at this parties, they usually have alcohol and mixers. So, I thought, why not make something targeted at this group? Creating premade cocktails or mocktails for parties, offering something unique for their celebrations.

I did my business research to see if anyone was doing this in Singapore, and at that time, there weren’t many competitors. It seemed like a viable business. I researched what drinks would be great for these events, ingredients I needed to source, like syrup, liquor, and mixers, and the bottles to store the drinks.

At first, I considered using plastic bottles since they would be cheaper, but after much research, I realized how affordable glass bottles were. Using glass bottles helped make my drinks more premium. I also referenced some alcohol brands to design my bottle sleeves, providing a more wholesome experience.

To spread awareness of my brand, I created a website ↗ and an Instagram ↗ page, posting videos and images of my drinks. However, this was my caveat—I’m not someone who uses social media often, and the photos and videos I took didn’t do justice to my product.

This was back when I was in year 3 of poly, so it was really just me experimenting after classes. My first group of testers was my FYP group mates and my prof (of course, I made mocktails for them—no alcohol in school!).

I knew I needed to post consistently to spread awareness, so I created many posts initially to schedule on Instagram and Facebook. But I realized it was very hard to generate content after a while.

Besides posting on Instagram, I also posted my products on Carousell, a place where people search for what they want.

In 2019, I made my first sale, and I was ecstatic! The customer bought 10 bottles for a company Christmas party, and as my first customer, I really wanted to deliver.

Shortly after that, COVID-19 happened, so there weren’t many parties, and business really died down. I was in the army during this period (stay-in), so I didn’t have time to adapt my products and post on social media. During this time, another brand, Kiki's Reserve, popped up, serving single serve cocktails in a bottle. I was serving 750ml since I targeted bigger groups. I saw Kiki's Reserve really taking off.

I thought about stopping the business since I couldn’t keep up with social media, but my first customer bought from me again in 2020, reaffirming that what I was doing was working.

During my unit time, when I stayed in camp for two weeks and could bring my laptop, I tried to innovate by selling smaller bottles and adding toppings choices similar to BBT. Two of my army friends supported my business, and I really thank them for that.

I tried to keep my business alive—updating the menu, posting on Instagram, having promotion sales, and even drinks for Valentine’s Day (I got one sale out of that :D).

But eventually, at the start of 2023, I decided to call it quits and stopped posting. However, the site is still up, and in a way, I think it serves as a memory for me.

Starting a business is not easy. There’s a lot that happens behind the scenes that the public doesn’t see—the research, the design, keeping up with social media. It’s really a lot for one person to handle. But honestly, I learned a lot from this. If you really want to do something, you’ll go out of your way to achieve success. I’m thankful that my current partner supported me during the later phase, helping with taking photos, videos, and suggesting ideas to improve my content (you can see the big difference in image quality on my Instagram page).

Would I go back to this? Maybe, because honestly, I love making drinks, or in general, I just love building products. So If you’re looking for some cocktails or mocktails for your party, you can always approach me. I’m open to making them for you.