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Behind the Label: Interview with an Adelaide Maker Who Scales a DIY Beverage Business

aadelaides

2026-01-30

11 min read

Meet Sophie Delaine: how an Adelaide maker scaled artisan syrups from a stove to market-ready production — and how tourists can help.

Struggling to find authentic Adelaide-made drinks online? Meet the maker who turned a stovetop hobby into a touring-friendly syrup brand

Tourists and local shoppers tell us the same things again and again: they want authentic, locally made souvenirs, clear provenance, and quick shipping — but they also worry about quality, sizing and returns. In 2026, that gap is an opportunity. We sat down with Sophie Delaine, founder of Torrens & Fig Syrups, an Adelaide-based artisan syrup maker who scaled using a hands-on, DIY-to-scale approach inspired by Liber & Co. Her story shows how a kitchen experiment becomes a reliable product line for tourists and cafes alike — and how visitors can meaningfully support small producers.

How it began: a stove, seasonal fruit and a curious tourist market

Sophie’s origin story starts like many craft-food businesses: in a home kitchen after a farmer’s market discovery. "I made my first batch of quince syrup on a camping stove after a long weekend in the Adelaide Hills," she remembers. "People at the markets loved it. They’d ask, ‘Where did you get this?’ and I realized Adelaide visitors actually want something with a story — not mass-produced souvenirs."

"We started with 2-litre test pots and a camping stove. Keeping it hands-on meant we learned every corner of the recipe — but scaling meant learning how to keep that heart as we grew." — Sophie Delaine, Torrens & Fig Syrups

Why the DIY-to-scale model works for small makers in 2026

Inspired by the Liber & Co. mindset — that you can learn by doing and scale deliberately — Sophie adopted a phased approach. The model is especially suited to Adelaide makers for several reasons:

Access to premium local ingredients: Adelaide Hills stone fruits, lemon myrtle, native pepperberry and citrus from local growers provide unique flavour profiles that tourists value.
Low upfront capital risk: start with small lots (2–20 L) and iterate recipes before investing in bigger equipment.
Hands-on quality control: founders who know every step are better able to preserve the artisan character as volume grows.
Tourism demand for storytelling: visitors want provenance; they’ll pay for a product with a clear maker story and traceable ingredients.

Interview: The practical side — recipe development, scaling and standards

We spoke with Sophie about the technical and business choices that moved Torrens & Fig from test-batches to wholesaling to cafés and tourist shops across South Australia.

Q: How did you translate a home recipe into something scalable without losing flavour?

Sophie: "The first step was documenting everything. Not just ingredients, but steep times, heat profiles, grind size for spices, and dilution ratios. Once you can reproduce a small batch consistently, you can apply proportional scaling — but it’s not linear. Heat transfer and extraction change at larger volumes, so we built a small pilot kettle (50–100 L) to bridge the gap between the kitchen and our production floor."

Q: How do you ensure safety and shelf-life while staying 'artisan'?

Sophie: "We follow Food Standards Australia New Zealand guidelines for shelf-stable syrups and have our recipes reviewed by a food technologist. Practically, that meant adjusting acidity (pH control), pasteurisation, and implementing a lot-coded traceability system. We test every batch for microbial safety and maintain cold-chain shipping options for batches with no preservatives. That transparency reassures tourists and wholesale partners alike."

Q: What equipment upgrades were most consequential when you scaled?

Sophie: "Three upgrades made the biggest difference: a jacketed kettle for precise temperature control, a gravity-fill bottling line for consistent fills and vacuum-seal capping, and a small lab set-up for pH and Brix (sugar content) testing. These let us keep flavour integrity while moving from 10L test batches to 500L production runs. We also kept some processes manual — like hand-labeling limited-release batches — to preserve the artisan look customers love."

Q: When did outsourcing (co-packing) make sense?

Sophie: "We reached a point where demand from cafes and regional souvenir shops reached a scale where the bottling bottleneck was limiting growth. We trialled a local co-packer for our core SKUs so our team could focus on R&D and direct-tourist experiences. But we kept our seasonal and limited editions in-house. For us, co-packing was a strategic tool — not a total hand-off."

Concrete steps Sophie recommends for makers looking to scale

Scaling a food product is part craft, part engineering, part business strategy. Below are actionable steps Sophie shared for other Adelaide makers — and what tourists should look for when deciding what to support.

For makers: a practical checklist

Document every variable: recipe cards with exact measures, timings, temperatures and sensory checkpoints.
Pilot before you invest: build a 10–100 L pilot to test heat and extraction differences before ordering commercial tanks — many recent kitchen tech & microbrand marketing pieces cover common pilot-kit choices and lab basics.
SOPs and QA: create standard operating procedures, HACCP plans, and a simple lab routine (pH and Brix at minimum).
SKU rationalisation: focus on 4–6 core flavours for wholesale; keep seasonals for direct sales and tourism appeal.
Packaging that tells a story: labels should include ingredient origin, allergen info and batch codes. Tourists love a map or ‘meet the maker’ note — and shifting to sustainable options is easier with the right suppliers (see our coverage of eco-pack solutions).
Choose co-packing strategically: outsource repetitive tasks (bottling, label application) but keep R&D and limited runs in-house.
Unit economics: track COGS per bottle, including labour and shrinkage — manual methods can hide real costs.
Apply for local grants and microloans: many regions offer funding for sustainable packaging or value-added agriculture — these can pay for bottling lines or label printers.

For tourists and shoppers: how to support with impact

Tourists often want to do the right thing but wonder how to ensure their money helps the maker. Sophie recommends:

Buy from the maker where possible: markets, farm gates and makers’ studios give the highest margin to the producer.
Ask for provenance: who grew the fruit, when was it harvested, is it seasonal — these are good quality indicators.
Choose gift sets: they support multiple SKUs and help with international shipping consolidation — many small brands use micro-bundling and micro-fulfillment tactics to reduce per-item shipping costs.
Request local shipping: many small makers offer consolidated shipping or tourist bundles that protect product integrity and lower costs.
Leave reviews and follow on social: small businesses depend on word-of-mouth. A five-star review helps more than you think.
Participate in experiences: book a tasting, a maker’s class or a behind-the-scenes tour. These directly boost revenue and deepen the connection — the rise of micro-experience retail shows how valuable in-person touchpoints can be.

Design choices that matter for tourist-friendly syrup souvenirs

Sophie stresses packaging and product design are where tourists make split-second purchase decisions. In 2026, shoppers are checking for sustainability, authenticity, and convenience.

Packaging and sustainability trends

Recent consumer shifts — particularly the focus on sustainability in late 2025 — mean small makers should prioritise recyclable or returnable packaging. Sophie switched from single-use shrink wrap to a cardboard-backed gift sleeve with a QR code linking to the maker’s story and suggested recipes. That small change increased gift-bundle sales by 18% in six months. For playbooks on refillable or low-waste packaging for microbrands, makers can consult guides like the Sustainable Refill Packaging Playbook.

Product sizing for tourist buyers

Offer multiple formats: a 50ml tasting vial, a 250ml tourist bottle for suitcases, and a 500ml home-use bottle. The tasting vials reduce the shipping friction for international travellers and act as impulse purchases at market stalls.

Sales channels and tourism integration in 2026

Post-2022 recovery saw tourists returning to Adelaide with a stronger desire for experiences over souvenirs. By 2026, makers who combine online clarity with in-person storytelling win. Sophie balanced three channels:

Direct-to-consumer e-commerce: clear photos, sample-size options, and transparent international shipping rates.
Local wholesale: cafes, boutique hotels, and tourist shops in the CBD and Adelaide Hills.
Experience bookings: tasting sessions at the studio and pop-ups at Adelaide Central Market.

She emphasises that tourism partners — boutique hotels, tasting trails and visitor centres — can be the single most valuable long-term sales channel for artisan makers because they provide recurring exposure to new visitors.

Marketing tactics that actually convert tourists into customers

Story-first content

Short videos of harvest days, a map of ingredient origins, and behind-the-scenes recipe trials perform well on platforms tourists use when planning trips. Sophie says a 90-second ‘from orchard to bottle’ clip produced in late 2025 doubled engagement on her Instagram Reels and led to a 22% increase in site visits from the Adelaide tourism corridor. For makers refining short-form content and showroom presentation, resources on showroom impact and short-form video are useful.

Leverage local tourism calendars

Adelaide’s event calendar — festivals, food weeks and market dates — creates concentration of visitors. Sophie times limited-edition releases around those events to create urgency and a reason for visitors to bring back a truly local gift. Strategies that combine slow-travel and pop-up timing can be found in writing about micro-stays and slow travel.

Simple, clear ecommerce pages

For tourists planning purchases later, the e-commerce experience must remove friction. Sophie lists these must-haves:

High-quality product photos showing scale (hand holding bottles)
Clear shipping timelines and international duties estimates
Sample packs and tourist bundles
Personalisation and gift-wrap options

Costs, margins and the reality of scaling — the less-romantic numbers

Sophie is candid about margins: "Margins look great on a 250ml bottle at retail, but you must account for wasted stock, broken bottles, and the time for small-batch production. When we scaled, we tracked hour-by-hour labour costs for every SKU and cut products that bled margin."

Key financial levers Sophie uses

Reduce SKUs: focus on best-sellers for wholesale; rotate seasonals for direct channels.
Bundle pricing: increase average order value by bundling travel-friendly sizes with recipe cards — many makers are moving toward micro-bundles and weekend pop-up strategies to lift AOV.
Optimize shipping: use local courier partnerships and calculated international duties at checkout to avoid surprise costs for tourists.

What changed in late 2025 and why it matters in 2026

Two trends accelerated between late 2025 and early 2026 and shaped how Sophie runs the business:

Conscious travel and provenance: tourists increasingly look for products with clear local provenance and transparent ingredient sourcing. This elevated small makers who could tell a credible story backed by traceability.
Micro-scale manufacturing tools: more affordable pilot-scale kettles, mobile bottling lines and simple lab kits made it easier for makers to move beyond the kitchen while maintaining artisanal control — a topic covered in practical guides to kitchen tech for microbrands.

These shifts mean a maker who can combine story, small-batch authenticity and clear logistics is well positioned for growth — especially in a destination city like Adelaide.

How tourists can make their support meaningful — a short action list

Buy directly at the maker’s stall or studio when you can.
Choose consolidated shipping or sample packs to avoid high courier costs.
Ask about provenance and seasonality — genuine makers will happily explain.
Save receipts and follow up: leave a review and tag the maker on social media.
Book a tasting or class — it’s the best direct revenue and builds word-of-mouth.

Final takeaways: lessons for makers, tourists and local retailers

From our conversation with Sophie, three big insights stand out for 2026:

Start small, document everything: scale only after reproducibility is achieved.
Keep the story visible: tourists buy provenance. Labels, QR codes and in-person storytelling matter.
Use selective outsourcing: co-packing for reliability, in-house for identity and limited editions.

For visitors to Adelaide, Torrens & Fig Syrups is the kind of souvenir that keeps giving: it tells a story, fits in a suitcase, and tastes like a place. And for makers, Sophie’s journey shows the practical path from a kitchen stove to a stable business that supports seasonal harvesting and local supply chains.

Want to support Sophie and makers like her?

If you’re in Adelaide, visit indie markets like the Adelaide Central Market or book a tasting at maker studios during your trip. Prefer to shop from home? Look for makers who offer consolidated tourist bundles, clear shipping rates, and labelled origins — these choices ensure your dollars reach the artisan, not a middleman. For weekend and pop-up sellers considering portable retail setups, see practical playbooks on weekend pop-up operations.

Action now: Seek out a tasting next time you’re in Adelaide, buy a travel-friendly syrup pack, and leave a review — small actions that make a big difference for local makers scaling up.

adelaides

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Senior editor and content strategist. Writing about technology, design, and the future of digital media. Follow along for deep dives into the industry's moving parts.