Perth couple Iona and Craig Brownhill swapped law and astrophysics for liqueurs and chocolates with their business Pomology.
Craig studied astrophysics before he realised his calling was in the alcohol industry.
“It has been quite unexpected,” Craig tells me.
“I didn’t think this would be the route I would go down.
“I always imagined I would do my degree and go into an office job.
“But I’m really glad that I haven’t.”
And the skillset involved with astrophysics has surprisingly come in useful when creating their products.
“Coming from a scientific background has been really handy,” Craig says.
“It has really helped.
“The maths skills were a bit more full-on with the astrophysics, but they they have been really useful for the brewing.”
The duo have a range of chocolates and liqueurs inspired by local ingredients, and have some whisky maturing in casks.
“It’s been great, how fast we have grown,” says Iona.
“I really enjoy giving people something that they enjoy with their families.
“It warms my heart, seeing people love what we do.”
What is it like working as a couple?
Iona and Craig, both 29, thoroughly enjoy running Pomology together in Perth.
“It is absolutely fantastic,” says Iona.
“Sometimes we have a difference of opinion.
“For example, there’s the ginger and rose flavour. And I absolutely hate Turkish Delight and I said we’re not doing it.
“But then we took it to the Edinburgh Christmas market and the number of people that liked it!
“I just went, okay, I’m wrong. The one and only time!” she laughs.
“But I think on the whole it’s great, you can be very honest about everything.”
Craig agrees: “It’s really nice for both of us to have all this time together.
“And we’re both fully invested in it, and working towards the same thing.
“I think it makes us work better as a team.”
How do Iona and Craig make their Pomology liqueurs?
Coming up with new flavours can be a bit of “trial and error” says Craig, but it’s “good fun”.
“We have hundreds of those little IKEA glass jars and we try different combinations in those,” he says.
“We wanted to use local ingredients, like the berries which are great here.”
It’s no surprise that fruit is at the heart of their business, as the word Pomology means the study of fruit.
“I usually start off by picking a local ingredient I want to use,” Craig continues.
“For example, we’ve got The Strawberry Shop right across the road from our unit.
“So then we just tried it out with different things.”
Iona talked me through the process for making their strawberry and cacao nib liqueur.
“We use 60 kilograms of fresh strawberries per batch,” she says.
“That makes around 1,000 bottles.
“We stew that with the cacao nibs for three months in the alcohol base.
“Then we take it out, and put them in teabag things to get the flavour out of it.
“And then we take that out of the alcohol, and we leave it for another month.
“You’ll find this yourself. Your leftovers always taste better than the night you’ve cooked it.
“It’s to let the flavours settle down a bit. It brings out the sweetness more, and it allows the earthiness of the cacao nib to show through more.
“Whereas if you just take it out and bottle it, you’re left with the bitterness of the cacao nib and the overly sweet strawberry.”
Hand painting Pomology chocolates in Perth can take three days
Their chocolates also involve a rather intricate process.
“We hand paint all of our chocolates and fill them with fresh ingredients,” says Iona.
“This adds something unique to them.
“Very few people hand paint anything because of the time it takes.
“I quite like it personally because of the artistic side in me.
“Each one is different and each one is special.”
But that gorgeous look does take time.
“A box of chocolates – that’s six chocolates – will take us about three days.”
‘A bit daunting’ says Perth Pomology founder
Although Iona and Craig have come a long way since Pomology began, there are times where things feel “daunting”.
“Sometimes it’s a bit daunting,” Iona says, “but I still feel like we have to catch up on others.
“There are a lot of people in the industry who are further down the line.
“It’s one of those things where we don’t have a huge amount of experience in the drinks industry, but we are learning constantly.”
Craig adds: “What we have achieved in the last couple years of running our own business is pretty cool.
“I’d like to see it grow a lot more. We’re both quite ambitious.”
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