Young entrepreneur has smoking hot idea
Bilqees Grant wants to take the trend of smoked cocktails to high-tech new heights
Entrepreneurs and the innovation they bring to the world are the foundation of any economy, and that's one reason I want to introduce you to a remarkable young lady named Bilqees Grant. I met her in early 2023, she's got a passion for making good things happen with wood, glass and metal, and she's looking to expand her business in a way that you might find interesting. And if you know something about making things from wood commercially, you might even want to get involved in her venture.
Bilqees owns and operates an online company called Helius Originals. It started during the lockdown of 2021, and currently sells high-end products for making smoked cocktail drinks. To be honest, I didn't even know smoked drinks were a thing until I visited Bilqees' site (www.heliusoriginals.com).
Hardwood smoke is added to drinks to enhance flavour and the complexities of the taste experience, and her current product lineup includes kits with various hardwood shavings and boards, a beautiful torch, and drinking glasses, all stored in an elegant wooden box. You burn wood with the torch, capture the smoke in an overturned glass, then mix your favourite cocktail in the smoky glass. She's currently developing a new idea that takes this concept further.
The notion is to automate the combination of wood smoke and classic drinks in a fine wood tabletop cabinet. The look is meant to resemble a 200-yearold item in the drawing room of an English lord, but combined with high-tech internal components that automate the combination of wood smoke and cocktails all visible behind glass, all with the elegant beauty of yesteryear.
It's a big idea, and like any new concept there's a vast expanse between vision and commercial reality, an expanse that cannot be accomplished without help.
I find people like Bilqees interesting because they combine vision, tenacity, design skills, marketing and finance, all with the hope of bringing something worthwhile to the world. This is especially encouraging in someone only 30 years old. In Bilqees case, I've volunteered to advise her on the design and small-scale production of the hardwood cabinet that's at the heart of her idea. And while it's one thing to have an idea, it's quite another to make that idea real in commercial quantities with reliable quality control. That's where the right partner comes in.
What Bilqees needs now is to connect with a small, commercial woodworking shop owner who understands traditional, solid wood cabinetmaking, yet also has the capacity to produce dozens, and perhaps even hundreds of tabletop cabinets per month. There certainly are large commercial woodworking shops in Canada that make things in modern ways using modern materials, and also thousands of people who have great amateur home workshops where they work traditionally in solid wood as a hobby. What Bilqees needs lies somewhere in between, and that's not common. If you're the rare person with the expertise and setup she's looking for, send her an email at info@heliusoriginals.com.
I've suggested Bilqees consider two woods for her cabinets: cherry and imbuya. Both can be obtained from verified sustainable sources, and both deliver a rich, dark colour without need for stain. Cherry is a domestic hardwood that starts out with a salmon colour when newly cut, but develops a rich, reddish-brown tone with time and exposure to sunlight, especially after an oil finish is applied. Imbuya has a dark brown colour, it comes mostly from Brazil, and is one of the best-kept secrets of the fine woodworking world.
Only time will tell if Bilqees can make her vision a sustainable reality, but when I see young people like her in action, it gives me hope that the world of handson, bootstrap innovation is still alive and well.