We caught up with the brilliant and insightful Zack Squier a few weeks ago and have shared our conversation below.

Alright, Zack thanks for taking the time to share your stories and insights with us today. We’d love to have you retell us the story behind how you came up with the idea for your business, I think our audience would really enjoy hearing the backstory.

As a chef, I’ve always had a deep respect for cannabis—whether it was helping someone with pain, sleep, anxiety, or just offering a better way to unwind. But if I wanted to consume an edible or one of the few cannabis drinks available at the time, I had to settle for artificial flavors, food dyes, preservatives, and other ingredients I didn’t usually put in my body. And more often than not, they just didn’t taste good.

In 2019, burnt out from 15+ years of opening and running restaurants, I decided to create something different—a chef-crafted cannabis food and beverage company focused on real ingredients, bold flavor, and intentional effects.

I built the foundation on three simple rules:
• Use the highest-quality ingredients possible—no shortcuts, ever.
• Make it taste amazing—because when quality comes first, great flavor usually follows.
• Every formulation should have a purpose—what is it going to help people with?

At the time, I was still running restaurants 60+ hours a week. But after my shifts, I’d rent a local kitchen by the hour and dive into recipe testing—building flavor profiles, dialing in formulations, and figuring out how to create stable cannabis products that were both functional and actually enjoyable to consume.

What started as a savory-focused edible company has evolved into what it is today: a premium infused food and beverage brand on a mission to normalize cannabis in the mainstream—and to raise the bar for what cannabis products should be. Clean. Purposeful. Flavor-forward. Crafted with real ingredients and real standards

Great, appreciate you sharing that with us. Before we ask you to share more of your insights, can you take a moment to introduce yourself and how you got to where you are today to our readers.

I’ve spent most of my life in kitchens. I started working in restaurants at 13, opened my first one at 22, and spent the next decade-plus building a career rooted in flavor, hospitality, and craft. That experience gave me a deep appreciation for how ingredients, preparation, and intention come together to create something meaningful. When I transitioned into the cannabis space, I didn’t leave that behind – I brought it with me.

Squier’s Specialty Elixirs is the result of that journey. We make cannabis-infused beverages and edibles that are chef-crafted, ingredient-driven, and designed to actually taste good and make you feel good. We offer sparkling seltzers, bottled cocktails, mixers, and real-fruit gummies – each formulated with premium cannabinoids and functional ingredients, like organic agave, fresh citrus, adaptogens, and natural prebiotics.

Our products aren’t just about getting high. They’re about creating elevated, reliable experiences that fit into your lifestyle—whether that’s winding down at the end of the day, being more present at social gatherings, or finding an alternative to alcohol that still feels celebratory.

We solve a problem a lot of people don’t even realize exists: cannabis products don’t have to taste bad, feel inconsistent, or come loaded with junk ingredients. We hold ourselves to the same standards you’d expect from a craft cocktail bar or a farm-to-table restaurant. That means full transparency, thoughtful dosing, and a clean label you can actually read.

What I’m most proud of is that we’ve built a brand with integrity in a space that’s still figuring itself out. We didn’t chase hype. We earned loyalty by focusing on quality, experience, and trust. And every time someone tells us our products helped them cut back on alcohol, manage anxiety, or simply enjoy cannabis in a way that feels good to them, I know we’re doing something right.

If you’re looking for cannabis that’s elevated, intentional, and made by people who care deeply about what they’re making – welcome. You’re in the right place.

Have you ever had to pivot?

Squier’s actually started as a savory edible company. We launched with chef-crafted products like infused sauces, cooking oils, and compound butters — and for the first year, that’s all we did. People loved them, and I was proud of how unique and flavorful they were. But pretty quickly, I realized that if I wanted to build something truly sustainable and scalable, I needed to create a product that people could use daily — something that could become a habit, not just a novelty.

One holiday season, I released an infused cranberry sauce for Thanksgiving. As a fun bonus, I included a drink recipe using it — mostly just to give people another way to use it after the holiday meal. I didn’t think much of it at the time. But come January and February, I started getting messages from customers asking if they could get more cranberry sauce. I was confused — Thanksgiving was long over — so I asked why. And to my surprise, they said they were dying to make more of those drinks.

That was the moment the light bulb went off. It wasn’t just about the cranberry sauce — it was about the drink. That’s when I knew we had a new direction. From there, I pivoted the brand toward infused beverages and mixers, and that ultimately led to the seltzers, cocktails, and elixirs we’re known for today.

What do you think helped you build your reputation within your market?

I think my background as a chef has played a huge role in building trust and credibility around the brand. From day one, the mission was to bring real culinary standards to cannabis — to create products that not only work, but taste incredible and use the best ingredients possible. That mindset is baked into everything we do.

People see our logo and they know it means quality — real fruit, clean formulations, no shortcuts. We’ve never chased trends or cut corners just to hit a price point. Instead, we’ve focused on flavor, experience, and consistency. That’s helped us stand out in a crowded space and earn a reputation for being the best-tasting, most thoughtful products on the shelf.

Contact Info:

• Website: https://drinkdifferent.co/
• Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/squierselixirs/
• Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/zack-squier-b68696216/