Today we’d like to introduce you to Brenton Mowforth.
Hi Brenton, thanks for sharing your story with us. To start, maybe you can tell our readers some of your backstory.
Since creating Cheers to Happy Hour in 2017, and Wander Thirsty in 2021, Brenton
Mowforth has become the authority on where to drink and how to drink. His mission is
to influence people to share in his passion for ‘drinking better, not more’ by taking a
more thoughtful approach to what we consume.
Celebrating flavour and savouring the moments that are usually accompanied by craft
cocktails and spirits defines the business and mindset of Brenton’s day-to-day
operations. Brenton’s online community is immersed in the Farm-to-Glass / Liquid-to-
Lips culture that has imbibers across the world abuzz with libation filled conversations.
His passion for cocktails and the hospitality industry have been recognized by the 50
Best Bars organization, Forbes, Toronto Star, Destination Toronto and Liqour.com, among
others, and he continues to be a one-man encyclopedia on the subject of libations.
Brenton is currently focusing on creating artisanal yet approachable cocktails that
inspire his audience to take a closer look at the ingredients and the creativity that goes
into modern cocktails and spirits.
I’m sure it wasn’t obstacle-free, but would you say the journey has been fairly smooth so far?
It has been anything but a smooth road. There’s never really been a blueprint for doing what I do, so a lot of it has felt like carving out a path as I go.
Being a content creator also means being a small business owner, and in my case, largely a one-person operation. You quickly learn that making the content is only one part of the job. You’re also handling production, editing, accounting, contracts, sales, marketing, client relationships and everything else that comes with running a business. Learning how to wear all of those hats at once can be pretty chaotic, especially when there aren’t many established systems or safety nets for this kind of career.
There’s also the challenge of explaining what I actually do. The term “influencer” can carry some pretty loaded or dismissive connotations, while “content creator” has become so broad that it doesn’t always communicate the work involved. A big part of my career has been figuring out how to define what I do while simultaneously figuring out how to do it.
But I think that uncertainty is also part of what has made the journey interesting. I’ve had to build the career, the business model and, in some ways, even the job description as I’ve gone along.
Appreciate you sharing that. What else should we know about what you do?
My work lives at the intersection of cocktails, hospitality and storytelling – though I’d say I’m truly in the business of culture. Through Cheers To Happy Hour, I create content that explores the people, places, techniques and ideas behind drinking culture, with a particular focus on cocktails and the bar industry.
I think what I’m best known for is taking subjects that can sometimes feel niche or overly technical and making them interesting and approachable. That could mean explaining why a bartender uses a particular technique, digging into the history of a classic cocktail, spending time behind the scenes at a great bar, or telling the story of the people responsible for creating an experience.
I’ve always approached the work more like a storyteller than a traditional influencer. I’m much more interested in why something exists than simply showing that it exists. A lot of care goes into the production as well – from research and writing to filming, lighting, audio and editing – and I think that combination of education and production has become a recognizable part of my work.
What I’m most proud of, though, is the community I’ve built around it. Something that started with me simply being curious about cocktails has grown into a platform that allows me to work with some incredibly talented bartenders, chefs, bars and brands, both in Canada and internationally. It has also given me an opportunity to shine a light on an industry and the people within it that I genuinely care about.
If there’s one thing that sets my work apart, I think it’s that curiosity. I never want to just tell someone that something is good. I want to understand what makes it good, who made it that way, and then find an entertaining way to bring the audience into that story.
Are there any important lessons you’ve learned that you can share with us?
The most important lesson I’ve learned is that if you’re going to do something, you might as well really do it.
I don’t want to reduce it to something as cliché as “YOLO,” but there’s some truth buried in there. Go big. Chase the ridiculous idea. Make the thing that feels overly ambitious. Try to create something that makes people stop for a second and wonder how you pulled it off. I’ve learned that a lot of the ideas we dismiss as unrealistic are actually far more achievable than we think – they just require someone willing to attempt them.
I’ve also learned that the best path to both success and satisfaction is to be as authentically yourself as possible. That can be surprisingly difficult, especially when you put a camera in front of yourself and suddenly feel like you need to sound or behave a certain way. The more I’ve allowed my actual personality, interests and curiosities to come through in my work, the more the work has felt like mine.
And finally: do the hard thing, even when you’re not particularly good at it yet. Being bad at something is usually just part of becoming good at it. Keep showing up, keep experimenting, and eventually things start to click.
I want to be able to look back at the time I spent doing this and see that I made something I’m proud of – not that I played it safe.
Contact Info:
- Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/cheerstohappyhour/
