Banks and Bloom Distillery + Lab is a West Australian company founded by biochemist Elaine Darby and winemaker Trent Carroll.

Trent’s name might be familiar to some of you from his earlier AFL career at Fremantle and West Coast.

But it was Elaine’s background that caught my eye when a media release came through recently announcing that Banks and Bloom Ice Vodka had been awarded Doubled Gold in the San Francisco World Spirits Competition.

Between 2015 and 2018, Elaine was managing director of Auscann, an Australian pharmaceutical company focused on cannabinoid-based medicines.

She’s also had careers as a winemaker and a lawyer, but it’s the medicinal cannabis that is relevant to today’s episode.

Banks & Bloom owes its origins to another business founded by Elaine and Trent called Aquila Black, which has developed THC extract technology that they believe will revolutionise the cannabis drinks market overseas, where recreational cannabis is legal.

To create these cannabis drinks, Aquila Black pioneered new distillation methods to extract pure clarity of flavour from classic botanicals and native Australian ingredients.

And as Elaine will explain to you in a moment, this R&D turned out to be applicable to developing an innovative new range of spirits – gin, vodka and RTDs – that can be legally enjoyed today, here in Australia.

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