Mission Spirits was formally founded in 2018 by Jay & Ashley Wheeler, but its story starts well before that. A husband & wife who met while working in New York City’s media industry, Jay & Ashley developed their palate for spirits while exploring the bars and cocktail lounges of Manhattan’s Lower East side.
It was only a year into their relationship that Jay first decided to try his hand at distillation. In the true spirit of trial & error, he undertook this endeavor in the confines of a tiny Hell’s Kitchen apartment with jury-rigged equipment and questionable flavor combinations. The results were abysmal enough that most would’ve cleaned up their mess and chalked the project up as an entertaining anecdote to be told amongst close friends. For Jay, however, a passion was born that would set him on a path that neither he nor Ashley could have conceived of at the time.
Four years, a baby, and a house in the suburbs later, that passion would continue to gnaw at him until it became too much to ignore. Without much more than a resolute drive and the hope that in pursuing their dream they would figure things out along the way, Jay and Ashley started down the path of forming Mission Spirits.
In 2017, Jay quit his job and their persistent theme of trial & error again took over. Numerous visions, locations, and financing options for the distillery took shape and fell through. Many times, they thought they’d have to give up on their dream. Each time, through some twist of fate, chance encounter, or luck, they were able to carry on.
By 2020, fate’s hand had guided them to a building at 215 Buck Street in the Glasstown Arts District of Millville and an unexpected partner by the name of Steve Kelley. They closed on the building on March 6th, 2020 and exactly one week later, the world shut down in the wake of the global Covid-19 pandemic. Progress ground to a halt and, again, Jay and Ashley questioned whether their Mission would ever come to fruition.
It has been only through the support of friends, family, and the community of Millville that in 2021 their almost decade-long dream of creating Mission Spirits came to fruition. With Mission now a licensed and operating distillery, Jay, Ashley, and Steve tackle crafting their products in the same spirit they undertook building their brand – leveraging trial & error and taking sometimes bold risks to create something truly unique and special.
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