A former engineer who called last round on his construction future to take a shot at his dream career has now created one of the world’s best tequilas.
Melbourne-based Dom Evans has spent the better part of the last decade engineering himself a strong future as one of the world’s brightest minds when it comes to getting on the booze.
Co-founder of Aussie-made Thirsty Group, he has quickly established himself as one of Australia’s stiffest drinkers and co-founder of one of the fastest-growing independent spirit lines in the country.
His award-winning liquors have already downed numerous awards, with the latest concoction, Ojala Tequila, winning double gold at the prestigious 2024 Sip Awards, which ranks and rates the world’s most popular spirits.
It also skulled silver at the sort after 2024 London Spirit Awards, selected for its look, taste and quality when compared to other spirits from around the globe.
Not the first round for drinking buddy distillers
It’s not the first time the thirsty thirty-year-old has tasted success in the alcohol industry, already engineering the world’s most-awarded vodka “Baxter” as part of the same brand he started with best mate Jake Gautreaux.
Not worried about mixing his drinks, Dom says turning to tequila was a natural chaser to Baxter Vodka’s acclaimed success.
“The beer market has been declining over the last 20 years, and this has been replaced with vodka and tequila. This is driven hard by tequila,” he told Build-it.
“Tequila is the fastest rising spirit in the world by consumption. it is only second behind vodka. It is still early days for tequila, and it keeps rising, so it made sense to get into it,”
The pair is already planning what they’ll be ordering next round, with a thirst for making some RTD vodka cans that are already taking shape.
But wracking up this type of bar tab isn’t something that happens overnight.
A decade ago, Dom was studying civil engineering at RMIT University when he became hungover with the industry and decided to mix things up by giving spirit and making a go with the best bud, Jake.
The cash-strapped uni student quickly became love drunk on his own liquor, pouring heart, soul and most of his savings into his unique take on popular bar favourites.
The brand quickly filtered into drinking establishments around Victoria and the Melbourne CBD, with Baxter creating a cocktail of success, winning the prestigious ‘Triple Still’ Award in 2023, the highest accolade in the global industry, while also picking up first place at the 2024 London Spirits.
The vodka’s achievements helped set the foundations for the pair to build their alcohol empire, Thirsty Group, producing over a million bottles annually and amassing over $10 million in sales across their line of spirits.
In fact, they now have shelves full of award-winning tequila, gin, spiced rum, and liquours, winning 30 international competitions over the last three years alone.
Degree helps down drinking success
However, Dom’s life could taken a far more sober path without the initial Dutch courage to ditch his engineering career in favour of, quite literally, drinking on the job.
“Towards the later part of my studies, I found mechanical engineering to be very HVAC specific; by the end, I had become disenfranchised and wanted to do something fun and cool,” Dom told Build-it.
I have always liked designing and creating products, so my friend Jake and I decided to do our own,” he told Build-it.
“We threw all our money into designing the vodka, made a few hundred bottles and started cold calling bars to sell it.”
“All of a sudden, we were in 50 bars around Melbourne and realised it could be a full-time gig.”
The realisation was enough for Dom to announce the last call on his engineering career shortly after graduation and the start of his engineering internship placement with gas and electricity provider AGL Energy.
Going on to launch one of the world’s fastest-growing alcohol brands, Dom says his engineering skills eventually came in handy after all, helping to keep the bar tab low.
“Our secret is having complete control of the entire production process from distilling to blending to bottling to distribution. We use extremely high-quality spring water for every product as well as extremely high-quality neutral ethanol,” he told Build-it.
“We learnt the hard way in the early days when we had our vodka contract made for us that if you don’t control it yourself, things can go wrong that you can’t fix, and a lot of time and money is wasted trying to fix other people’s errors.”
“I didn’t think I would ever use engineering again, to tell you the truth,” he said.
“Only now is the engineering side of it coming into my work more. We have a massive still that uses steam power, and it comes in handy to know what’s going on and problem-solve immediately whenever there’s an issue with that.”
