#156 We Don't Want to Be Talked Down to - Genevieve Brazelton, The Bitter Housewife

Meaningful Marketplace Podcast

Back on May 13th, 2020, we released show episode 39, an interview with Genevieve Brazelton, self-proclaimed “Bitter Housewife” and founder of The Bitter Housewife cocktail bitters. You realize very quickly there is absolutely nothing bitter about her, but her products certainly are. Quick background reminder: The Bitter Housewife products are cocktail bitters, handcrafted in small batches in Portland, Oregon. Bitters are a mixture of botanicals, roots, and spices steeped in a spirit base. They are used to complement, soften, or heighten the flavors of alcohol and cocktail ingredients. Adding bitters to a drink makes for a more complex flavor profile. Think all bitters are alike? No. You'll never find flavoring, coloring, or artificial preservatives in any of their products. They use only the highest quality whole ingredients to craft unmistakable flavors. Genevieve got tired of being “told” by bartenders and others about what to drink in a cocktail and tired of the eyerolls at some of her orders. Drinks shouldn’t have rules, she decided, and set out to produce a full line of bitters for others who were tired of being talked down to. Real ingredients, great taste and fun make a great cocktail. So what’s changed since our last show with her? On the first show, the company had one flavor. They quickly expanded to three but a quick look at their website shows eight incredibly creative flavors for your cocktail. However, that first product, a canned bitters-and-soda flavor was very popular and at one point was 50% of their online sales; a huge success. But then they killed the entire line. Distribution chain problems, production cost increases and cans became scarce and the whole perfect storm made continued production impossible. Grocery store shopping also came to a screeching halt because of COVID and the challenge was to get people to find their bitters, mainly online. Even that became an issue as well since Facebook and Google ads started changing their algorithms and ad response tanked. Plus breweries were putting more product in cans and that hurt because the company couldn’t get can production. So, regroup, as all entrepreneurs do! Production is much simpler now than blending bitters and soda and canning it. And then there are fewer skews to track as well. The downside is, of course, smaller revenue with the canned beverage line gone. It causes the owners to crawl through the financials line by line to see what’s necessary to keep the boat afloat and keeps the organization lean. It also makes decision-making clearer when dealing with a simpler product offering. You can find the eight flavors in grocery stores in the local Portland market and in specialty stores across the US. You can buy online at https://thebitterhousewife.com/. Follow them on: Instagram - @thebitterhousewife. Tiktok - @thebitterhouse. Our hosts: Twitter - @sarahmasoni and @spicymarshall, Instagram - @masoniandmarshall.

Thank you for Listening to The Meaningful Marketplace Podcast with your hosts, Sarah Masoni of Oregon State University's Food Innovation Center and Sarah Marshall, owner of Marshall's Haute Sauce. Connect with us on Instagram @meaningfulmarketplacepodcast.

Audio engineer, mixer, and podcast editor: Haley Bowers
Show logo was designed by Anton Kimball of Kimball Design
Production Coordinator: Kayleen Veatch