As another Australian winter rolls in, Greek Australians dream of summer: salt-crusted skin, music thumping through beach bars until dawn, and the kind of freedom found only somewhere between a ferry ride and sunrise.
For engineer Thomas Tassoulas, the creator of Voir, that feeling never really left; it just needed to be bottled.
Like many young Greek Australians, Tassoulas spent his post-school years chasing the myth of Mykonos. Among the chaos of cousins, school friends and spontaneous holiday friendships, he stumbled upon a ritual that would quietly shape his future: a tiny beachside mini-market and a berry liqueur that became the centre of every night out.
“We’d sit in a circle before going out, pass the bottle around, play music, tell stories,” Tassoulas recalls. “It was never just about the drink. It was the feeling.”
Back in a foggy Melbourne, the memory lingered long after the tan faded. Working in construction by day, Tassoulas found himself chasing the taste that had become attached to one of the happiest periods of his life.
When he tried to track the drink down locally, he was told the remaining bottles had effectively vanished.
“I remember thinking, how does something so good just disappear?” he says.
From Mykonos to Melbourne lockdown
The foundations for Voir were not really laid in Mykonos, but in the tightly knit Greek pockets of Brunswick and Pascoe Vale South.
“All four grandparents lived within a kilometre. My dad’s twin was two doors down. Cousins everywhere. It was like our own little village,” Tassoulas says.
Greek was his first language. Greek school, which he resisted as a child, later became something he credits for maintaining a deep connection to his heritage.
The idea for Voir resurfaced years later during Melbourne’s lockdowns, while Tassoulas was recovering from ACL surgery. Suddenly forced to slow down, he found himself obsessing over the drink he could never forget.
What followed was months of trial and error: 23 separate flavour attempts, endless late nights and the help of a beverage technologist to reverse-engineer the memory.
The final result was a clean berry-based liquer built around blueberry and cherry blossom notes, designed to capture the feeling of a Mykonos summer without the overly sweet, artificial taste common in many premixed drinks.
“It became all I thought about,” he says.
The unconventional flavours quickly became part of the intrigue. Tassoulas says venues were initially hesitant about blueberry and cherry blossom cocktails, but once bartenders gave them a chance, the response surprised them.
“Several venues now tell us Voir cocktails are among their top-three sellers,” he says. “People want something different. The storytelling helps them connect to it.”
Brutal reality behind the glamour
By March 2023, Tassoulas had walked away from the safety of engineering and construction work to commit fully to Voir.
“My family wasn’t thrilled,” he admits. “It was stable, good money. But I knew I couldn’t do this halfway.”
Before the warehouse, the national distribution and the sold-out launches, there was simply a living room filled with cardboard boxes.
“My mum, dad, girlfriend, mates, everyone was helping pack orders,” he says. “It was chaos.”
His mother, who works full-time as a border patrol officer at Melbourne Airport, and his girlfriend Dora, a family support worker, still help pack orders several nights a week.
“Sometimes we’re doing 50 or 60 orders in one night after they’ve already finished work,” he says. “Without them, I genuinely couldn’t keep up.”
At the centre of the operation was Dora, who Tassoulas credits as one of the key reasons the business survived its early years.
Beyond packing orders, she has helped run expos, reviewed contracts, assisted with marketing ideas and been involved in countless behind-the-scenes decisions.
The pace, he says, was often brutal: interstate drives, endless venue meetings, food and wine pop-ups, sleepless nights and constant financial pressure. During one particularly intense sales week, Dora ended up in the emergency room, only to return later that evening to help close down a pop-up stall.
“People see the nice events and the social media side of it,” Tassoulas says. “They don’t see the driving to Sydney alone, the knock-backs from venues, the exhaustion or the friendships you lose because you’re never around.”
Much of Voir’s growth, he says, came through relentless grassroots work: cold-calling venues, walking into restaurants unannounced and personally pitching the brand face-to-face.
“There were road trips to Sydney and Adelaide where there was no guarantee anything would come from it,” he says. “You just keep showing up.”
A nostalgia brand backed by the community
Despite the ruthlessness of the alcohol industry, Tassoulas discovered that storytelling was his biggest advantage.
“It’s more than a drink,” he says. “People want a feeling attached to what they’re consuming.”
Early support came from Greek-owned venues and businesses that immediately understood the nostalgia attached to the brand. Among the first was Vanilla Lounge and owner Tia Spanos, who backed Voir before it had built mainstream recognition.
“That early support meant everything,” Tassoulas says. “Within the Greek business community, people really backed us.”
In return, Tassoulas now assists some venues with cocktail training and menu development. “If Greek businesses need help, I’m always happy to support them too,” he says.
Today, Voir is stocked in more than 300 venues across Melbourne, over 20 venues in Sydney and more than 15 in Adelaide. Voir also secured Australia-wide distribution through Paramount Liquor, one of the country’s largest liquor distributors.
To date, Voir has sold more than 50,000 bottles across its range, while its premixed cans have sold out across four separate production runs. The brand’s newest release, Cherry Blossom Liqueur, moved more than 4,000 bottles in under six weeks.
Voir has also recently collaborated with the Lucas Group, another milestone Tassoulas admits once felt impossible while packing boxes in his living room during lockdown.
Yet, despite all this success, Tassoulas insists the core idea has never changed.
“You might not be in Mykonos,” Tassoulas says with a smile. “But you can get pretty close.”
Two Voir cocktails for World Cocktail Day
For World Cocktail Day (13th May), Thomas Tassoulas, creator of Voir, is joining the global celebration by sharing two cocktail recipes that capture the spirit of a Greek summer. Served in restaurants and bars across Melbourne, they can now be recreated at home.
Santorini Sour
45mL Voir Blueberry
15mL Vodka
30mL Lime Juice
10mL Sugar Syrup
5mL Blue Curacao
Egg white
Shake!
Mediterranean Spritz
60mL Voir Blueberry
20mL Lime Juice
Mint
Ice
Tonic Water
