We’re excited to introduce you to the always interesting and insightful Kate & Bri Mancuso & Knoebel. We hope you’ll enjoy our conversation with Kate & Bri below.

Kate & Bri, appreciate you joining us today. So let’s jump to your mission – what’s the backstory behind how you developed the mission that drives your brand?

Our mission is to elevate personal experiences by enhancing the senses. It all started when we rolled dried lavender & chamomile into our joint one evening, and realized it had this gorgeous taste and super calming effect. After studying a lot about the benefits of herbs and essential oils, we realized we can create all-natural ways to influence our community. We loved the idea of making smoking blends, teas, and room sprays that create a very specific effect – such as calming, awakening, and yes, even arousing… ;)

Kate & Bri, 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?

At Root + Ether, we are a queer+woman owned business who create made-to-order room sprays, all-organic teas + herbal smoking blends.

R+E launched in 2021 when Bri + Kate (childhood friends) wanted to turn their love of herbs + essential oils into something bigger and create products elevated our day to day experiences. All our products are made with 100% natural ingredients that literally help you viiiibe. Whether it’s an organic herbal.tea to help you sleep, a yummy smoking blend to get you in the mood, or a crystal-charged room spray to connect you to your feminine energy… we have it all. And we hand-craft every single one of our products with lots of care.

The number one thing that sets us apart from your other room spray and tea companies is that we customize! We absolutely love to meet with clients 1:1 to create the PERFECT product specific to what they want. We’ve worked with production companies, LGBTQ+ shops, major liquor brands, and even intimacy coaches to create gorgeous customized scents and herbal blends.

We also do our best for our sweet Earth who we are just passing through — that’s why our products are recyclable, all natural, and never contain harsh chemicals or fillers. (Some products even have select crystals in them!)

We love helping our community reach their highest selves, and love that we can create products that influence that.

We’d love to hear about you met your business partner.

We met during high school at an artistic internship in Pittsburgh! We both loved creating, acting and writing and instantly bonded. Next thing we know, we’re at a Jason Mraz concert belting “I’m Yours” and then rooming together in college. We’ve always been partners-in-crime and now partners-in-business. ;)

Can you talk to us about manufacturing? How’d you figure it all out? We’d love to hear the story.

We hand-craft our products right here in Los Angeles! However, there was a lot of research and trial/error when we started. We wanted to make sure all of our ingredients were coming from a trustworthy place since we put so much effort into staying environmentally friendly. We ended up meeting with a few local apothecaries, trying to stick to queer + women run companies. Once we finally found two LA apothecaries that usually have our materials in stock and were within our budget, we were golden. So most of our herbs and essential oils come from these local LA businesses — which we love to brag about!

Contact Info:

• Website: www.rootandether.com
• Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/rootandether/

Image Credits
This is all us!