How the texture-forward Never Never Signature Vodka came to life

Vodka, it appears, is back in vogue.

If you step back in time to just a decade ago, gin was in the midst of its upswing — just on the cusp of the great gin boom that was to come. Where vodka had once reigned supreme as the great white spirit, gin was making its move, to a point where today gin is the most listed spirit on cocktail lists in Australia’s best bars.

But vodka is making a comeback, and is growing in popularity among bartenders. That might be thanks to the popularity of the Martini on drinks lists across the country, and a turn by bartenders to more approachable, flavour-forward cocktails.

But here’s the thing: does the world need any more vodka?

Look around at the market, and there is no shortage of vodkas out there. There are house pour vodkas, upsell vodkas, super premium luxury vodkas; vodkas from the Nordics, Baltics, Europe, Japan and the USA. Vodkas filtered once, twice, three and seven times. 

Who on earth would get into the vodka game now? Step forth Australian gin brand, Never Never. They’re known for making quality Australian gins that bartenders love to use — and, arguably, gin is a flavoured vodka at the end of the day, right? But what could they do to make a vodka that stands out in the crowded marketplace? What can they bring to the category that will have bartenders calling for Never Never’s vodka as often as they call for their gins?

As we explore here, the Never Never team decided to really dial in and focus on texture and mouthfeel — below is a look at just how they did it, and how some of Australia’s most creative bars are working with Never Never Signature Vodka.

A (very) brief Never Never history

Never Never got its start when the three founders — Sean Baxter, George Georgiadis, and distiller Tim Boast — got to together and borrowed a small 16 square meter space to start making gin, releasing in 2017 their Triple Juniper Gin. It was a quick hit with bartenders, who were drawn to an Australian gin that didn’t compromise on juniper-forward flavour — it was a gin they could use in their mixing, in their Martinis and Tom Collinses. Accolades and other bottlings of Never Never followed — they’ve been named the world’s best classic gin, world’s best London dry gin, and Boast has been crowned global distiller of the year not once, but twice. Their success saw them acquired by Asahi Beverages in 2024, with 2025 bringing the unveiling of brand new bottles, fresh labels, and now, their first foray into the world of vodka.

How do they make Never Never Signature Vodka?

Distiller Tim Boast and the Never Never team set out to make a vodka with superior texture being its number one focus. And that makes sense, given what they’ve learned producing their gins, the body and texture of which stand up beautifully in cocktails like the Martini.

“We are far more experienced than most at being able to talk authentically about the way that texture is delivered in spirits,” says Baxter. “We’ve done a lot of work when it comes to working with ingredients that don’t usually find their way into gin, primarily for the reason of texture. Beeswax, olive oil, coconut cream, oyster shells, cocoa butter, they’re all ingredients that explore this idea of palate weight, texture, and mouthfeel in spirit. And that was Tim’s trump card to play when it came to creating a premium vodka.”

For the Never Never Signature Vodka, they take high quality Australian wheat spirit, and refine that further to get a very clean, precise spirit.

The resulting spirit is filtered through activated carbon for 16 hours to further remove any impurities. To that is added three oil distillates that help to provide texture and character to the vodka: olive oil, coconut oil, and one that’s a little unlike the others, avocado oil.

“We explored a number of different oil distillates to enhance texture and mouthfeel,” says Baxter. “When Tim brought forward this idea of using an olive oil distillate, I was like, ‘done, let’s go.’” 

But Boast wasn’t done — adding the olive oil distillate was great, and made for a delicious product, but it wasn’t exactly what he was looking for. “Tim said that texturally, if we want to get it to where it needs to be, then there’s too much olive and it’s not balanced enough,” Baxter says. “And I’m looking at him like he’s a psycho. What are you talking about? It’s delicious!”

Then Boast brought them a version that also employed a distillate made from coconut oil. “When he showed me the role that played in delivering something that was far softer and less savoury, and which had more connection to the creaminess you expect with really high-end wheat spirit, you could suddenly see what he was trying to express,” Baxter says.

But still, Boast wasn’t quite done.

“I never expected avocado oil distillate to come into it,” says Baxter. “But then when you taste it, you see through the matrix a bit once you taste them individually, because you can see that there’s enough nuance with each one and that they play well when you start to balance it. It’s a little bit similar to working with cocktails,” he says.

The distillates are made by diluting and emulsifying the individual oils with high proof neutral spirit; this is then run through the still to create the distillate.

Once the distillates have been added, the resulting spirit is reduced to its bottling strength of 40 percent with the addition of McLaren Vale water — the same water source used for their gins — and a further addition of salts to tweak the pH profile of the vodka. 

“When you’re producing a gin, there’s a lot more opportunity to create unique flavours and mouthfeel and texture,” says Baxter. “All the different botanicals and spices all contribute to texture. But with vodka, you don’t have those options. So Tim added a small amount of magnesium, which is a naturally occurring salt, to the water and it just lifts the pH ever so slightly. 

“It’s not too dissimilar to lightly salting a sugar syrup, or adding a dash of saline into a Negroni,” he says.

Every step of the process, from the addition of the oil distillates to the pH tweaks, are all done in the service of making a delicious, textural vodka — one with body that will have you dusting off that Vesper Martini spec you forgot about.

How to use it —  inspired serves

Given the emphasis placed on the texture of the Never Never Signature Vodka, it’s no surprise that it has already proven popular with bartenders — bartenders like the award-winning Luke Whearty.

Whearty is the owner and bartender of Byrdi in Melbourne, where he celebrates and showcases Victorian produce in innovative ways, with drinks menus that change with the seasons, and award-winning recipes that grab attention — like the First Frost cocktail he has here, which landed on the Boothby Drink of the Year Top 50 in 2025.

The First Frost is inspired by — as the name would suggest — the first frost of winter, according to the drink’s creator, Luke Whearty. It’s “a clean and refreshing Martini riff showcasing Never Never’s first foray into vodka,” Luke says. “The vodka is washed with a blend of oils to provide extra mouthfeel and combined with distilled shiso, shiro shoyu (white soy) and a grassy coconut pine water before being served in a bowl of foraged pine and juniper scented with a distilled pine essence.”

The drink is delicious, of course, but it’s the theatrical serve that captured Baxter's attention.

“It’s wonderful when you partner with such a creative mind as Luke,” says Baxter. “The First Frost, when he was explaining it, he already had this idea pegged and this concept of building out a Martini moment that was very theatrical.

“It is that moment, the simple thing where every single time you you touch a cold Martini glass you leave your fingerprints on it, like the first footprints in new winter frost.”

Whearty says that they’ve been developing this serve for some time.

“The glass is frosted with liquid nitrogen to ensure that a very thin layer of the Martini freezes on contact,” he says. “As the drinks is enjoyed, that thin layer quickly melts ensuring that the last sip is as cold as the first.”

“The drink is a really wonderful expression of how good Byrdi is,” says Baxter.

At Tailor Room in Sydney, the small 20 seat cocktail bar has also drawn on the Signature Vodka’s texture to create their own inspired hero serve. Called Satin, in a nod to the bar’s menu that is built around the texture of fabrics, each serve is delivered on a limited-edition satin pocket-square pressed with the Tailor Room logo, which guests are encouraged to keep.

Byrdi’s First Frost recipe

Ingredients:

• 60ml Never Never Signature Vodka
• 10ml First Frost vermouth
• 20ml coconut pine water

Method:

1. Combine all ingredients together and filter through a V60 coffee filter, then batch and place in freezer for service.

To serve:

1. Freeze glass with liquid nitrogen. Pour batch from the freezer. Garnish with pine bowl sprayed with pine essence.

Recipe adapted from Luke Whearty, Byrdi, Melbourne.