Functional Beverage Brand: From Kitchen Experiments to National Distribution

The founder was a burned-out tech executive who discovered adaptogens during a wellness sabbatical. He started making mushroom and ashwagandha beverages at home, sharing them with friends who were equally stressed.

When demand exceeded his kitchen capacity, he faced the unique challenges of beverage manufacturing: stringent food safety requirements, cold-chain logistics, and shelf stability without artificial preservatives—all while maintaining the authentic, earthy flavor profile that made his drinks special.

Traditional beverage co-packers required 50,000+ unit minimums and couldn't work with his novel adaptogen ingredients without extensive reformulation.

Build Your Own Brand's beverage division specializes in functional drink formulation. We partnered with this founder to scale his recipes using high-pressure processing (HPP)—a cold pasteurization method that extends shelf life to 90 days without heat degradation of delicate adaptogens.

Our food scientists optimized the lion's mane and ashwagandha concentrations for efficacy while balancing the earthy flavors with natural fruit extracts. We created three flavor variants that tested favorably in blind taste tests against commercial competitors.

For launch, we offered 5,000-unit beverage runs—90% lower than traditional co-packers—allowing the brand to test retail response before committing to larger production.

The brand launched in Pacific Northwest natural grocers and quickly expanded. Within 8 months, they secured distribution in 2,200+ locations including major natural grocery chains throughout the West Coast.

The brand's 62% repeat purchase rate—exceptional for a new beverage brand—demonstrated strong product-market fit. First-year revenue reached $3.8M with gross margins above 50%.

The brand closed a $4.5M Series A in late 2025 and is scaling to national distribution in 2026, with Build Your Own Brand as their manufacturing partner for the expansion.