“After that I started noticing that many things started smelling terrible – like absolutely revolting – and one of them was beer.” For a beer sommelier and writer of ten years, this was a devastating and isolating development. When the pandemic halted her beer travel business and decimated the industry generally, Cubbler had pivoted into doing a beer podcast. Now, with her sense of taste still muted and the source of her livelihood unbearable to smell, her career has been thrown into uncertainty.

“It’s so frustrating and dejecting. It’s a real stresser for people in these industries, we’re all lamenting our lot in life right now,” Cubbler said. She’s had no choice but to put her relationship with beer to one side for the foreseeable future, pivoting again to create an online magazine for women in their 40s. “I’m a pragmatic person but I’ve had to start a whole new career path at 40, which is really daunting. If I start to think about what I’ve lost, it’ll overwhelm me.”