ShakenNotSlurred :: Curious Elixirs are what you drink when you’re not drinking. Booze-free, organic, and inspired by craft cocktails.
We’ve just finished developing the first flavor Curious No. 1, and now we’re meeting with potential customers, and getting this Kickstarter off the ground. We’re in love with the first flavor and we can’t wait to get your feedback. But first…
OUR STORY
Hey, John here.
I love bars + nightlife. I’ve worked in them since college. I’ve spent a lot of time in a lot of gin joints and been lucky enough to help start a few of them. I love how these places bring people together. There’s even been at least 2 babies born to people who met through our bar, including my niece!
But it got to be that I was just drinking too damn much. So I cut back on my drinking and started tinkering in the kitchen. My mission? To create non-alcoholic drinks as complex and surprising as any you’d find at a great cocktail bar… and to share them with friends. Some crowd favorites: a hibiscus Dark&Stormy and a dry 5-spice citrus concoction. This was the beginning of Curious Elixirs.
Years have passed, more friends have gotten sober, gotten pregnant, or just taken a break from booze. There still aren’t many good options. The lack of quality alcohol alternatives is pretty shocking considering 30% of Americans don’t drink. So last year, I teamed up with Ashley Simon to bring Curious Elixirs out of the kitchen and into the wider world.
Ashley, a digital strategist and yoga teacher, is passionate about creating welcoming environments where people can make decisions that support their wellbeing. Even, maybe especially, at the bar. In her own words, “I’m getting old and hangovers have become epic 2-day affairs — not even milkshakes + french fries + Netflix can cure them.” So she takes it easy on the sauce these days.
Our mission at Curious is to redefine what it means to drink socially. The signature requirement isn’t that a drink is alcoholic; it’s that it’s special, delicious, good for you, and good to drink with friends.
HOW IT’S MADE
We’ve been working with beverage pros + food scientists across the country, but Curious No. 1is our collaboration with a stellar team of producers in the Hudson River Valley. Our first flavor is low in sugar, made from 100% all natural ingredients, and includes our secret herb, root, and botanical blend which has the curious effect of lifting you up. More on that in an update!
While we can’t tell you exactly what’s in our secret blend, we can tell you what’s not:
Now that the first flavor is done, we’re raising $30,000 to go into production. These funds will enable us to:
If we reach $30,000 then we’ll go into production on Curious No. 1!
If we reach $60,000, that will unlock Curious No. 2 for everyone!
If we reach $90,000, that will unlock Curious No. 3 for everyone!
Help us bring delicious soft cocktails to the people! Whether it’s to celebrate or relax, play a game, or any of countless other activities, help us bring Curious to everyone who wants something delicious to share, but doesn’t want to get drunk.
We’ll be manufacturing Curious No. 1 in large quantities for the first time, so it’s possible that we could face issues sourcing some of our ingredients at scale. It’s incredibly important to us that the product is of the highest quality ingredients and organic wherever possible, so we’d rather incur some minor delays as opposed to using lower quality ingredients.
Another challenge is that shipping costs for glass bottles is pretty expensive and there may be some breakage. We’ve designed the packaging (stubby bottle 4-packs) with this in mind to allow for ease of delivery and to minimize breakage. We’re excited to show you the 4-pack design in an upcoming update!
Our team is equipped to handle these challenges and whatever else this company throws at us because our team has over 20 years of experience building startups. We know how to roll with the punches and find a way through.