In 2010, Mote and Chovancek launched Bittered Sling — a retail line of high-quality, small-batch bitters and extracts using homegrown and artisanal products that provides palate, plate and potion with a subtle-yet-exciting fusion of flavours — and quickly built a reputation both in Vancouver and across the globe.

The name Bittered Sling derives from the May 13, 1806 edition of The Balance, and Columbian Repository (Hudson, NY) that defines a cocktail as “A stimulating liquor composed of spirits of any kind, sugar, water and bitters. It is vulgarly called a bittered sling and is supposed to be an excellent electioneering potion inasmuch as it renders the heart stout and bold, at the same time that it fuddles the head.”