From Catwalks to Cocktails: Jarrod Scott’s Sensory Symphony with Goldenbird

The familiar pre-Paris Fashion Week whirlwind of photoshoots and runway shows is on the horizon for Jarrod Scott, a seasoned veteran of the modeling industry. With over a decade spent gracing campaigns for haute couture houses like Givenchy, Jean Paul Gaultier, and Chanel, this glamorous chaos is a well-trodden path for the Australian model. Yet, during a recent video call, it became clear that the allure of the runway has taken a backseat to a far more profound and personal passion: the intricate world of flavor. Scott’s conversation veered away from fashion editorials and towards the tactile experience of harvesting seaweed, the dedicated search for rare eucalyptus varieties, and the nuanced differences between rose and jasmine as they bloom on the palate.

For the past five years, Scott has been meticulously cultivating a venture entirely distinct from his illustrious modeling career. Goldenbird, his ready-to-drink cocktail brand, is not a fleeting celebrity endorsement; it is the brainchild of its founder, creative director, and sole recipe developer. This deep dive into the art of mixology stems from a childhood fascination with taste and aroma, rooted in his upbringing in the Australian countryside near Melbourne. "I was raised in a really poor family, just with my mum in the countryside of Melbourne," Scott reveals. "Money was non-existent, and food was not great, so I started making things for myself. I wanted tasty food, so I’d constantly be out picking things, smelling things. It became an obsession."

This childhood obsession with foraging and flavor has blossomed into a sophisticated approach to drink creation. Scott’s early explorations involved supplying local restaurants with a diverse array of native Australian botanicals. "In summer, I’d spend days foraging native botanicals, flowers, and seasonal produce," he recounts. "I’d supply restaurants with Mirabell plums, strawberry eucalyptus, sea blight, samphire, seaweeds, all kinds of things. I had a lot of time to think about how I could utilize those ingredients and I’d go home and start tinkering around with them, whether in cooking or making drinks." This hands-on experimentation now takes place on a significantly grander scale. His garage has, at various times, been a veritable laboratory, filled with drying eucalyptus, meticulously prepared botanical extractions, and even the occasional surprise colony of spiders. His personal refrigerator currently houses an impressive collection of around 70 macerations and experimental batches, a testament to his dedication, to the point where his family car has been temporarily displaced to the roadside.

Scott’s initial foray into the world of crafted beverages wasn’t directly into cocktails. His fascination with complex flavor profiles led him first to Scotch whisky. He meticulously developed a business plan and dispatched his partner, Briony Prier, to Scotland to engage with master distillers. However, this path proved less fruitful. "We wanted to make whisky more fun and enjoyable," Scott explains. "But whisky is a long game. It takes a long time to make a small amount of money. We were always going out and drinking cocktails anyway, so we asked, why aren’t we just doing cocktails?"

The pivotal turning point in Scott’s journey occurred in Grasse, France, the undisputed global capital of perfumery. It was here that he discovered Comte de Grasse, a company describing itself as a "liquor tech" firm, which was employing distillation techniques borrowed directly from the fragrance industry. Prier, who serves as Goldenbird’s co-founder, vividly recalls their initial meeting with the Comte de Grasse team. "We didn’t want a cookie cutter product from a contract bottler," she states emphatically. "We wanted something that really spoke to craftsmanship. When we met the team in Grasse it just hit the nail on the head."

Central to this alignment was master distiller Marie-Anne Contamin, a seasoned professional with decades of experience in sensory development. When Scott presented his extensive collection of foraged ingredients and an ambitious repertoire of 60 recipe concepts, Contamin encountered botanicals she had never before worked with. "It was a really meeting of minds," Prier elaborates. "The way Jarrod layers his recipes with flavor is exactly how perfumes are constructed." This symbiotic approach, where Scott’s understanding of natural flavors met Contamin’s expertise in extraction and distillation, laid the foundation for Goldenbird’s unique creations.

Among Scott’s original concepts, "Romance Apocalypse" holds a particularly special place in his heart. Described on the Goldenbird website as a "sexy bouquet of French lavender, damask rose, and Egyptian jasmine combined with fruity acidic hints of strawberry eucalyptus," its vibrant pink hue, shimmering through its elegantly designed, fragrance-inspired bottle, would not be out of place on a high-end perfumery counter. Scott’s affinity for floral notes is evident. "I love floral drinks," he admits, "and I wanted to create something that was like getting slapped in the face by a bunch of flowers. Usually, when you get a floral drink, it only uses one flower, because they’re such intense flavors. Rose hits you straight away on the nose. Jasmine has more of a honey note. Then you’ve got lavender, which is earthy and floral."

The development of "Romance Apocalypse" was an exercise in painstaking precision, with Scott meticulously adjusting the balance drop by drop. The process involved 160 distinct variations, with further refinements added thereafter. The resulting beverage offers a complex, unfolding sensory experience, mirroring the layered structure of a fine fragrance. Even its captivating color is derived entirely from natural flower extracts, underscoring Scott’s commitment to purity and authenticity. Scott’s attunement to the recipe reached such a profound level that he could detect even the subtlest deviations. In one of the initial batches produced by Comte de Grasse, the use of an incorrect type of coconut water was immediately apparent to him. "I just knew it was wrong," he asserts. "They had used a brand of coconut water that had 5.5 grams less sugar, and I just knew it didn’t taste right." This level of sensory acuity is a hallmark of his approach.

While Scott finalized several recipes with Comte de Grasse, the official launch of Goldenbird was still a considerable undertaking. The brand required a sophisticated website and the navigation of diverse regulatory landscapes across different markets. However, Scott’s entrepreneurial spirit propelled him forward. Upon discovering Global Spirit Masters, he felt compelled to present his creations. "We had finished the R&D and I just thought, why not?" he reflects. The judges were notably impressed. Goldenbird, lacking any prior public profile or a formal launch strategy, still managed to captivate. Several of Scott’s entries garnered gold medals, including "Romance Apocalypse," validating his garage-born experiments against those of established mixologists.

With this crucial validation secured, Scott intensified his efforts to bring Goldenbird to market. He discovered, however, that the journey to launch a ready-to-drink cocktail brand was as protracted as that of Scotch whisky. Beyond the complexities of his modeling career and regulatory hurdles, the arrival of Scott and Prier’s first child introduced another significant, albeit joyous, delay, leading to Goldenbird entering a period of hibernation. Now officially launched, Goldenbird offers its four award-winning recipes, with an additional two slated for release in April. These six beverages will constitute Goldenbird’s inaugural permanent collection, with seasonal variations to follow, promising an ever-evolving palate for consumers.

Looking towards the future, Scott harbors ambitious plans for Goldenbird’s continued growth. "I’d like to see, years down the line, we will eventually have a flagship bar somewhere," Scott envisions. "For now, we’ve been doing pop ups through Fashion Week, and we’ve had a lot of interest." Indeed, some of Goldenbird’s earliest adopters have been discerning cocktail bars, which have been procuring Scott’s meticulously crafted concoctions in bulk to serve as foundational elements for their own signature drinks. These establishments then apply their unique bar-specific refinements before serving, a model that Scott believes represents the future of high-quality cocktail service.

"I think a lot of bars now are using pre-batching," he observes. "You get a high-quality liquid with stability and consistency without the hassle of trying to teach someone how to get it right. It plays into a faster service, reduces staff costs… it’s a win, win for everyone. It’s not everywhere, but it’s going to be the way of the future." Scott’s assertion is strongly supported by the practices of establishments like Tayēr + Elementary in London, a bar consistently ranked among the World’s 50 Best Cocktail Bars. At Tayēr + Elementary, pre-batching of non-perishable ingredients is not merely a strategy for efficiency but a necessity due to the sheer complexity of their recipes.

A spokesperson for Tayēr + Elementary shared with The World of Fine Spirits, "We batch because we use highly concentrated distillates, extracts and flavorings which when broken down often contain less than 1ml per individual serving (we measure to 0.25ml). It would be impractical and literally impossible to measure this in service." This practical limitation underscores the value of pre-batched, high-quality components like those offered by Goldenbird, enabling bars to execute intricate and consistently excellent cocktails without compromising service speed or accuracy.

Regardless of the brand’s future trajectory, Goldenbird will undoubtedly remain a deeply personal endeavor for Scott. He has not only meticulously developed each recipe but has also lent his artistic vision to the design of the fragrance-inspired bottles. He is not merely the face of Goldenbird; he is its very essence, the creative force and the sensory architect behind every sip.