Mountain mist from Tasmanian wilderness along Huon River turned into bottled water
Aussie couple make fortune turning mountain mist from the Tasmanian wilderness into bottled water – and you’ll never guess how they do it
- Pure Mist Water was created by a Tasmanian couple
- Collects water from nets in the Huon Valley
- Won the Fine Water Society Taste Awards
- The demand for rare products has skyrocketed
A Tasmanian couple with the ingenious idea of bottling water from the state’s mountain mists has found liquid gold.
Jenny Carrasco and husband Justin Hickey have been bombarded with requests since their wedding Pure mist sparkling water won the top gong in its category at The Fine Water Society Taste Awards in Athens last month.
Based on 360-degree expanses of farmland on either side of the undisturbed Huon River, the pair collect water from the sky on nets strategically placed in areas covered in fog.
Pure Mist water and gin is made from water collected from the mountain mists of Tasmania
Jenny Carrasco and husband Justin Hickey (pictured) gave up their jobs in Melbourne to fetch water from mountain fog in Tasmania
Strategically placed nets catch the fog five months a year
The company was just a blip on the radar of the world’s bloated bottled water market before winning gold in the sparkling category and silver in the still.
It is now processing orders from restaurants and airlines around the world, with a major contract in China expected to skyrocket production over the winter months.
Ms Carrasco told Daily Mail Australia that she came up with the idea of drawing water from the air while visiting her hometown in Chile, South America.
“We lived in the desert and it rains every eight to 10 years so we have to collect water in smarter ways to water our gardens and that’s how we did it, we had nets in the hills and when the fog came out of the ocean it seeped to the tanks and that’s how we did it,” she said.
A conversation about the process when she sat on the couch with her husband just under two years ago got the ball rolling.
“My husband said there was a lot of fog in Tassie because he was born here in Tasmania and knew the Huon Valley,” Ms Carrasco said.
The couple lived in Geelong, south of Melbourne, with Mr Hickey in IT and Mrs Carrasco in the local hospital.
“This is something completely new and we’ve both learned a lot about water and gin over the last year and a half, let me tell you,” she said.
Punters enjoy a taste of Pure Mist gin at the recent festival
Fog gathers on vast farmland on both sides of the Huon River
Pure Mist pre-mixed and bottled gin was developed after liquor magnates came knocking
The couple bought a small farm in the valley and collected their first tanks of water, which came out of the lab with no signs of toxins.
“We thought there was a better way to collect water than taking it from a river or digging it into the ground,” Ms Carrasco said.
The process of collecting water from the air can only be achieved during the colder months.
“Five months of the year we get this very thick fog that comes through the Tahune forest and when it comes through it hits our net and the water particles condense and turn into water droplets, which are fed into a tank by gravity,” said Ms Carrasco .
The water goes through a three-stage filtration process before being bottled.
The mountain mists along the Huon River give Pure Mist’s water a unique taste
Within six months of the operation, the pair got the idea to turn their water into gin after several approaches from Tasmanian distillers.
“They wanted to buy our water because it was so pure, but we thought about it and said we’d make a gin and see how it went. And now it’s going really well because it has a unique taste, just like our water,” said Ms. Carrasco.
The company extracted 10,000 liters of water in the first five months before setting up more nets in the summer.
It is now in the process of installing even more nets, from five ten-metre high nets to ten to meet demand.
“Since we won the award, we’ve got a deal with China and we’ve been approached by someone in Canada…” Ms. Carrasco said.
The couple hope to open a cellar door shop on their property in the near future and eventually build small cottages on the farm where people can stay and watch the mist being collected and bottled.
The company’s products will be accessible at the upcoming Melbourne Food & Wine Festival and similar events around the country.
It can also be purchased online directly from its website.