Launceston's Noya Spirits has spent the past few years cultivating and fermenting its own brand of a traditional Chinese spirit, widely known as one of the most consumed spirits in the world.

Owner Ian Sypkes said he first came across the elusive elixir during his research and made it his mission to find out more.

A civil engineer by trade, Mr Sypkes teamed up with a partner who was travelling to China, where they spent days and weeks with producers of the spirit to unravel how to replicate it at home.

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While a traditional Chinese spirit, the method creating it is different to tried-and-true methods of spirit-making for things such as whisky.

"It's an intense spirit, with a complex flavour, so a lot of it we learned by feel and by watching and doing," he said.

Mr Sypkes connected with Seedlab Tasmania almost by accident, while he was researching seeds to ferment for his spirit - however, this happy chance led to his participation in the Cultivate program.

"For me, Cultivate is about gaining a better understanding of how to sell this product because I have spent a lot of my time learning how to make it," he said.

Initially, his plans for Noya Spirits involved the tourism market, in an attempt to draw people to the state but due to the COVID-19 pandemic, his thinking about how to market his product has had to shift.

"We did think there was the potential for tourism but now we have started thinking about exports and how we get the business ready for that." The spirit is about six months away from "having a product in a bottle" because the product needs to be aged for at least that amount of time.

"This spirit has a lot of different types, it's like wine, it's named by its aroma," Mr Sypkes said.

He said he hoped to develop a "Tasmanian aroma" for his brand.

While in China Mr Sypkes said he had many people to ask about how to create his own spirit but there are not many people in Tasmania.

However, he said he had connected with Meru Miso and some other producers who are fermenting, to assist him with his journey.

Noya Spirits is just one of the Northern businesses participating in the Seedlab Cultivate program.