Alright – so today we’ve got the honor of introducing you to Jennifer Agnew. We think you’ll enjoy our conversation, we’ve shared it below.
Hi Jennifer, thanks for joining 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.
I was at a swanky low lit bar in Dallas and noticed there were suspicious dropper bottles lining the counter. I asked what strange science experiment was going on feeling a little nervous about my drink. The bartender informed me those bottles contained house-made bitters. I knew about Angostura bitters, but had no idea it was possible to make your own or come up with different flavors. For the next year back in Kansas City, I looked behind every bar I went to and noticed their bitters supply. Everyone had Ango, a few had Peychauds, and maybe one or two more. A few bars made their own bitters. But by and large, the bitters selection was small and definitely not local. Kansas Citians love supporting (and drinking) local, so I thought I would try my hand at bitters. I got a “make your own bitters kit” online and tried it out. It was fun, so I ordered a few books and scoured the net for recipes. I happened to be getting my MBA at this time and minoring in Entrepreneurship, so I used the bitters idea for my classes. Once I had some bitters made that were unique flavors I started selling them to my friends. I figured I would start selling to bars as soon as I could scale. I named my company Good Bitter Best and got a logo and website.
Soon after COVID hit. Bars were shut down. I came up with the concept of making cocktail kits which include everything but the booze to make cocktails at home. Bitters are such a niche thing, I needed a way to make it more accessible to the public if that was my new target audience. I went to my first holiday market winter of 2020 and sold out of kits! I’ve been selling at pop-up markets and online ever since.
Jennifer, before we move on to more of these sorts of questions, can you take some time to bring our readers up to speed on you and what you do?
I am a full time teacher by day, entrepreneur by night/ weekend. I love going out to local bars and restaurants as well as traveling. I also like being creative and making things. My bitters and cocktail kit business (Good Bitter Best) is a way to support my desire to have fun experiences as well as make a fun and delicious product! Right now most of my sales come from in-person pop up markets. I also sell online, and I wholesale to a few small shops. My goal is to start wholesaling to more shops locally and out of state. I also have recently scaled to the point I can sell larger amounts to bars. I am hoping to get in with a distributor to make this process easier in the future. My product is different from others because I have unique bitters flavors and the option to get a cocktail kit. The kit includes bitters, sugar, and garnish for at least six drinks as well as a recipe. They make great gifts!
Some of my unique flavors for whiskey are Smoke and Cherry Cacao. Some of my creative bitters for clear liquor are Lemon Lavender and Jalapeno Lime. What is the point of bitters? They are simply added to balance out the sweetness in a cocktail or add depth to a beverage.
Follow me on social media @goodbitterbest where I post how-to videos and recipes to make delicious cocktails at home!
We’d really appreciate if you could talk to us about how you figured out the manufacturing process.
I manufacture all my own bitters and cocktail kits. Because my product is consumable, it presents unique challenges. I was able to start my business under cottage law (allows for small businesses to sell direct to consumer without a professional kitchen). This differs from state-to-state, so you will want to check out the rules in the area you live. For Missouri, once you start wholesaling you cannot fall under cottage law anymore. This lead to looking for somewhere I could kitchen share. There are only 2-3 place in Kansas City that are made specifically for this and none of them fit what I needed or were close enough. I ended up reaching out to restaurants/ bars/ distilleries to see if I could kitchen share with another local business. After many months, I found a brunch/ lunch restaurant in town that was willing to give me some space. I had met the owner at a pop up I had done and it turns out she loves bitters! It helped to have met face-to-face as just reaching out through email never seemed to elicit a “yes” response. For someone looking for a place to kitchen share, you may consider joining the local restaurant owners group so you can actually meet folks that own these spaces. I have also tried to find someone who would manufacture bitters for me, but the search has been in vain. Bitters require an extraction process (similar to how you make Vanilla Extract) and take weeks before they are finished. Manufacturing plants require huge amounts at a time which is fine for BBQ sauce, but when I am selling in 1 ounce bottles and have 9 flavors this is not affordable. Therefore, I remain the manufacturer and will most likely have to hire staff once I get into more shops and bars.
Items that have helped me along the way: joining farmers co-ops to get the best prices on bulk ingredients, buying a bottler (hand crank), fruit slicer, large dehydrator, and using silica packets to reduce moisture inside ingredient packages.
Let’s talk about resilience next – do you have a story you can share with us?
A few weeks ago I went to my first pop up in a different state, and the weather destroyed my tent overnight. I got to my site in the morning for day 2, and water had collected on the tent roof bowing it, and eventually breaking it. The weight of the water crashed down onto my main table of products and broke the table. We had to stab a hole in the tent to release the water in order to move it out of the way. Meanwhile, it is still raining so I am trying to clean up and put away products a quickly as possible. We had to walk everything out of the tent area to our truck, drive 8 hours home, then spend the next day cleaning up the wet mess that we threw in the trailer. I lost my tent, my table, and some of my products. With having to rent an Airbnb, a trailer, and pay for food and gas all weekend it was definitely a loss overall. When I posted photos of the damage to my social media accounts the maker community really came together to show support. I ran a 20% off sale of rain damaged kits (the ingredients were fine, the box had water drops on it) and had some orders come in from KC locals. My friends and family helped me go through the kits and re-package those that were too damaged to sell. I have done a few events since then and have gone through all the kits I was supposed to sell out of state and feel like my company is back on track! I am grateful to have such an amazing support group!
Contact Info:
- Website: www.goodbitterbest.com
- Instagram: @goodbitterbest
- Facebook: @goodbitterbest
- Other: TikTok: @goodbitterbest