Entry #02 – Real Bottles, Real Feedback, Real People

🥾 Entry #02 – What a Week

Some weeks feel like a quiet climb. This wasn’t one of them.

This past week at Wildfire has been equal parts energising and chaotic in the best way. We’ve had everything from merch debates to SEO wormholes, from heartfelt feedback on Merchant’s Flame to finally getting bottles into the hands of the full Wildfire crew.

So here’s what’s been going on — the mess, the magic, and everything in between.

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🔥 The Merch Question

We’ve started exploring what Wildfire “merch” could look like. But like everything we do, we’re not doing it the usual way.

The debate:

Do we create one clean, simple range — maybe just a few pieces that you'd where any where, any day?

Or do we build unique merch drops for each gin release — something to remember the adventure by, a memory and a story to tell when the gin is long gone?

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We had another question too - but one that we had a quick answer for: how much do we sell it for?

We immediately said, let's not do this for profit, we're scrappy and building something differently so let's do our merch differently.

Based on this we’re looking at pricing everything at cost — maybe adding a 10% buffer to donate directly to causes that align with what Wildfire stands for. The goal isn’t revenue. It’s getting something real into your hands.

We’d love to hear what kind of causes you think we should support. Outdoors access? Mental health? Climate action? Something close to home? Drop us a message and let us know — we’re listening.

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🧡 Merchant’s Flame Reaches the Whole Crew

You all were the first to get Merchant’s Flame — that was important to us. But this week, we made sure the team who helps make Wildfire happen got a bottle too.

There’s eight plus of us behind the curtain. A patchwork of doers, creatives, logistics wranglers, distillers and more. The type of people who show up after hours to label and ship bottles or test the difference a single gram of botanicals can make. Without them, Wildfire wouldn’t exist.

Seeing it in their hands — watching their reactions, hearing their words — meant more than I can explain.

“It’s absolutely lovely - maybe my favourite ever gin”

“Nicest gin I’ve ever tasted”

“Honestly– best gin I’ve ever had”

“First time I have ever enjoyed gin neat!”

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💡 Getting Found Without Getting Lost

This week was also a deep dive into the “how do we get found” question. We’ve been exploring:

• SEO (regular and AI-focused)
• ChatGPT + LLM search optimisation
• Google Shopping
• Amazon listings
• Word-of-mouth vs visibility at scale
  

We’re looking for that balance — the sweet spot where we can keep building something honest and human, but still invite new people into this community.

If you’ve got ideas, we’re all ears. Where do you discover spirits like ours? Where would you expect to see Wildfire?

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📸 DIY Spirit, Literally

In other news — we got ourselves a photo box.

Only one of us is a photographer by trade (and not product photography! but be sure to check our @weemadbesties who does our bottle macro photos), but when you’re building something like Wildfire, you end up learning all sorts of weird and wonderful things you never planned on. Product photography is the latest adventure.

There’s been a lot of trial and error, some surprisingly great shots, and a few truly cursed ones. But it’s fun — in the way that trying to build something real with your own hands always is.

We’re doing our best to capture what Wildfire feels like, not just what it looks like. Hopefully you’ll see the results popping up soon.

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🥃 Coming Soon: The Real World

We’re planning our first attempts at getting our gin out into the wild. Nothing too fancy. Just us, our bottles, and anyone who wants to try them.

Bars, sellers, fairs, events – we’ll share dates and locations soon. But this is just the beginning of getting out there and creating new stories.

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🪵 A Personal Moment

There’s no Wildfire HQ. No office. Just a crew of legends building something together in the scraps of time between jobs, kids, and the rest of life.

So when we sent Merchant’s Flame out to the whole team this week, the magic unfolded through WhatsApp. A slow, steady stream of messages: bottles arriving, gins being poured, friends and partners trying it, and nothing but incredible reactions rolling in.

And suddenly, it hit me.

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This isn’t just a cool side project anymore.

It’s not a one-off release we managed to pull together.

We’re making something real. Something people feel.

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It’s a great story already. And somehow, we’re only just getting started.

Thank you all for being a part of it!

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– Jimmy, The Wildfire Storyteller

The Spirit of Exploration