What are craft drinks? Is there such a thing as a craft brand?

Craft beers, craft gins, craft whiskeys. Craft, craft, craft, but what does it all mean? Here at Bear Grooming we are particularly into our craft beers and craft gin, they happen to be our favourites but there are plenty of new and exciting drinks popping up. Albeit in moderation however, as we know too much of one or the other is only going to leave you worse for wear.

Anyway back to our original question, what is all this craft business about?

Meet the slightly vague, slightly contentious, but generally beneficial movement in spirits distillation called “craft distilling.” As with craft beer, spirits have enjoyed a small-format boom in the past couple decades, with new distilleries and spirits brands popping up around the country, all founded on a dream of the small batch producer making it big—but not too big…

Actually, the reality of the craft distiller isn’t very well defined. The common sense notion is that craft must mean “small” and “carefully done.” Maybe “done with love,” too? Except there are no real definitions for craft production limits (or the amount of love that must go into each bottle).

Technically the term craft means the drink must be made in a traditional or non-mechanised way. What this basically means is that craft drinks are different to your mass brewed Becks beer or Plymouth gin as they aren’t made using all the advanced and expensive machinery that these big distilleries own. Therefore, the taste should be quite different.

What it really seems to boil down to is character. Essentially, craft drinks contain more character as there is a greater chance of each bottle of beer, or whisky, or gin or whatever being different from the last. One of the main reasons big and successful distilleries use this expensive machinery is to ensure a consistency in their product. Each bottle of Peroni will taste the same as the next, and so on. This is not the case with craft variations.

We have to say we quite like the prospect of a little more character in our drinks here at Bear Grooming. We are about all things authentic, although we aim for a consistency of product with our own beard oil, moustache wax, etc – we want there to be sense of authenticity and originality from what you get when you take a whiff of our black pepper and sandalwood scent.

This is why we don’t look to replicate anything any other beard grooming product has, from the scent, to the consistency of the oil or the wax and more. Although we couldn’t go as far as to say we have craft beard grooming products, we certainly like to think we embody the originality and authenticity of what it means to be a craft brand.

Discover our beard oil, moustache wax, and beard wash and see if you agree.