We’re excited to introduce you to the always interesting and insightful Cassandra Sears. We hope you’ll enjoy our conversation with Cassandra below.

Cassandra , thanks for taking the time to share your stories with us today Let’s start with the story of your mission. What should we know?

The Remedy Cocktail Co. is a vision for infusing the realms of hospitality and cocktail craft with herbal medicine and the garden. It is a dream, scratch made, organic, and the work is as dynamic as nature herself… embodying Levity, Creativity, Connection, & Authenticity.
First, I was a child, talking to trees…the next laid steps were forgotten, and then as an early adult I had an awakening to the path ahead of me and vigorously pursued everything I perceived as right and true. I became a gardener first and learned about herbal medicine as a close second. My hands were touching the earth, Plants spoke to me, especially in my dreams. I was creating tonics and tinctures and herbs for the people… the earth was my first teacher but then I pursued a deeper education and completed a 3-year clinical training program for herbalists to become health practitioners. I put myself through this program bartending & began a playful relationship with crafting botanical drinks. I discovered that I also felt at home in the hospitality industry, and behind the bar. I loved the fast pace and the medicine of connection that happens at a good bar. Being a host for guests to experience an elevated time out of mind from ordinary reality, to really hold the high vibration of this inspires me.

As always, we appreciate you sharing your insights and we’ve got a few more questions for you, but before we get to all of that can you take a minute to introduce yourself and give our readers some of your back background and context?

The Remedy Cocktail Co. is an apothecary cocktail catering service specializing in garden-to glass craft cocktails and herbal tonic superfood elixirs.

I am currently a one-woman show and am writing a book about the subject that will be released with Chelsea Green Publishing in the new year.

I am seeking to expand into making bottled tonics that will be available wholesale and at local markets.

I love teaching herbal cocktail classes! & am also available for consulting and menu development.

Collaboration is the way of the future and absolutely essential for small business success. I am passionate about supporting the local economy, particularly the gardeners and farmers who grow the fruits and botanicals that I transform into drinks.

Can you talk to us about how your funded your business?

Not very original, but I l ran a successful Kickstarter campaign. I had a professional video done in a gorgeous location, articulated the mission and vision of the business and offered really beautiful rewards to folks for contributing (products and services of the business). I really like Kickstarter because it’s kind of a hybrid between a loan and a donation model. If the rewards you offer are at or near the value of the donation tier, it’s kind of like the person donating is actually investing. My community (as well as a few others) really came together to back the project. I also obtained a small business loan through a really great local company that helps entrepreneurs with low interest loans. Prior to securing one, I interviewed with business advisors and prepared my credit score to be in the right place to be approved. I wrote a business plan and did an excel sheet of cash flow projections. I really learned a ton about the management of resources in my first couple years of business and the biggest is “be conservative; grow slow; take smaller calculated risks versus expecting to blast off like a rocket- and advice that comes tethered close behind is this: set aside 1/3 of whatever capital gained for cash flow. Always make sure you have a cushion and you’re making decisions seated from a place of spaciousness and power- don’t cut it too close!

We’d love to hear the story of how you turned a side-hustle into a something much bigger.

Very organically. The story I described above was after years of working professionally within all the areas I wanted to incorporate into my business model (herbalist, gardener, bartender).

I believe everyone has aptitudes and gifts…and in the ideal world that lives in my heart, we all get to contribute those gifts that have been cultivated and turned into relevant skills. I have been on the quest for applying myself adeptly into society since I graduated high school (and before, too actually). My passions and desires are multifaceted as well as my nature, dynamic- with lots of moving parts. Out of the box, and never really forced into one, for better or for worse. I had the fortune of attending an alternative hippy high school- my friends and I had ample opportunity for self-exploration. We were really quite spiritual and artsy, existential stardust poets. I knew I wanted to work with the earth and opted against going to a traditional college and accruing debt. I dove into the experiential! I began a full season farm apprenticeship in the Summer of 2018, in Downeast Maine with a couple who had been at it for 30 years and were some of the original members of the organization that provided this opportunity.

I was voracious for knowledge and experience, and open to the organic unfolding. I had always been a creature of nature- spending most of my time as a child, sitting in trees, talking to plants.
I started making medicine at this first farm- the lady of the farm picked up on the fact that I was interested in herbal medicine and assigned me to seed, grow, weed, harvest, dry, and then make these beautiful resiny blossoms of orange sunshine into an infused oil, and then salve for the farm to sell.
I fell in love with farming and spent the better part of my twenties covered in dirt. Several farms later, self-study, entrepreneurship, my own garden…I wanted something deeper- I wanted to know more.

So, I attended a 3-year clinical training program for botanical medicine in Vermont and some of the best teachers.

I put myself through this program bartending.

I was learning in-depth phytochemistry and the art of making classic cocktails concurrently. This was about 9 years ago. I fell in love with the craft, the creativity, the freedom of expression- the seamless blending of everything I loved…and then eventually I fell in love with hospitality.
I taught herbal cocktail classes for years, really just for fun- I am highly motivated by fun- I totally didn’t consider it a “side hustle”- I was simply driven to do it. I catered my first event by myself (herbal tonics at a women’s health retreat) 5 or 6 years ago but did not become The Remedy Cocktail Co. officially (well, legally) until last year ( early 2022) – I was marketing and preparing to “launch” 1 year before this.
I went full time all my own business for about a year and a half- but I’m actually back part-time at a hotel bar (that I love). I learned something about scale, and realized after scaling as big as I could get as I single individual, that I didn’t want to have employees, and that I also didn’t want to lose the essence of freedom, creativity, and magic that I bring to the table at events. There’s a sweet spot for me and I think I’ve actually found it.

Contact Info:

• Website: www.theremedycocktailco.com
• Instagram: @theremedycocktailco
• Other: Stay tuned for my book and a video platform being released in the new year!

Image Credits
Hannah Martin Monica Justenson Shannon Shipman Matthew Weiss Jenn Bakos