Hucknall couple's fun idea in lockdown has become a thriving new business

Ben and Rebecca Vowles started The Cocktail Van earlier this year, almost as a bit of fun after enjoying making their own cocktails in their garden bar.

But now, the couple are spending each weekend travelling to various events like weddings and fesitvals in their converted ice cream van selling traditional cocktails to a delighted public.

Not only that, they also now do cocktail takeaway nights and mixology masterclasses.

Rebecca said: "We bought the van in April and had it sprayed and then got our first booking in June, so it’s still all very new.

"We’ve both got no backgrounds in cocktails or bars or anything like that, we were just talking about pipe dreams and things we wanted to do in the future and then we hit upon this idea of getting an ice cream van but selling cocktails from it instead.

"When lockdown came along, we just decided to go for it.

"Ben got really into it and started making cocktails for the neighbours and learning more about it online and it went from there.

"As a bit of a joke really, we made a menu for the garden bar and then I said we should get an ice cream van and sell cocktails out of it instead – a sort of adult ice cream van.

"But licensing-wise you have to be careful with alcohol but we had a lot of support from Ashfield District Council, who were brilliant.”

However, this was no business idea that had time to be developed because Ben and Rebecca were still working their day jobs.

Rebecca continued: "My husband was only furloughed for a couple of weeks and we’re both still working full-time jobs.

"But we both thought this sounded like a bit of light-hearted fun and something to do together so we decided to do it.”

At the moment, the couple have no plans to quit their regular jobs and just want to maintain the van as fun sideline.

But with a full diary of bookings and events for the weekends to come, the project is clearly here to stay.

For more details or to book them, click here.