Now, she's turned her newfound hobby into an online business, First Things Thirst - cocktail ingredients delivered from her Springvale kitchen.

"I would say it was probably the whole COVID lockdown that inspired the business," Miss Damme said. "When we first went into lockdown, my mum sister and I spent our afternoons making cocktails, trying new recipes, we would make sure we celebrated each day."

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The CSU social work student said it was while shaking and stirring her way through the stay at home orders that she noticed the opportunity to get her first business off the ground.

"More recently in the last lockdown we just had in August the idea came to me to experiment with dry garnishes," she said. "I know other businesses sell them but with retail closed options were a bit limited, and lots are quite expensive so I saw a gap in the market and wanted to provide something a bit more affordable."

With a borrowed dehydrating machine, and an array of different fruits, Miss Damme got to work on a colourful array of cocktail garnishes and some sugar and salt rims, all of which she said have proven very popular and all of which are less than $15.

"I'm still living at home so at the moment I've just got it set up in our office and I dehydrate in my kitchen," she said. "I started out whipping up different batches with lemons, lime orange blood oranges and passionfruit and I really liked how they turned out.

"I've also got a margarita salt rim with chili and coconut and I have a passion fruit sugar rim and I'm hoping in early November to put out a cocktail mix."

Miss Damme's business model is simple - clients can order and have their products delivered within the hour, or swing by her Springvale home to pick up.

"My main idea is you get to Friday, and you think, I might have the girls over for a cocktail but I don't have any ingredients or the shops are shut," she said. "I'm happy for people to message on a Friday and order and I can deliver it within 20 minutes to an hour."

Hoping to display her wares at a market in the next month, Miss Damme said she is delighted with how it is going so far.

"It's a great hobby and side hustle and I really like being able to provide a good product to the Riverina," she said.

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