Hartford Business Journal

C T I N N O V A T O R S , 2 0 2 3 1 9 But then she hit on the combination of tea and botanicals — plants or parts of plants valued for their medicinal qualities. Common examples include ginseng, hibiscus and rooibos, derived from a South African plant. It was ultimately too late for her father, Ripps says. But she is glad that part of him shines through in her story. "I spent a lot of time with him talking about beverages, trying beverages," she said. She eventually decided to toss alcohol into the mix, creating tea cocktails for friends, family members and colleagues at Talent Resources, a celebrity marketing firm in Manhattan where she was working at the time. One of those colleagues was Maria Littlefield, whom Ripps had hired in 2009. Littlefield quickly joined Ripps in her tea-making experiments. Ripps' first business was Brew Lab Tea, which blended teas for Manhattan restaurants. She saw restaurateurs were plowing millions of dollars into food concepts, decor and other elements of their business. But when she looked for tea on their menus, she found relatively basic choices: chamomile, peppermint, English and breakfast teas. Ripps realized she could help restaurants build tea programs that spoke to their menus, becoming their tea sommelier. For a Moroccan restaurant, for example, she pitched a chai recipe using Moroccan spices instead of the traditional chai flavors. A new venture Ripps also turned her attention to developing cocktail mixers based on tea, and recruited Littlefield to join her in a new venture. ey le their day jobs in 2013 to launch Owl's Brew, named for the idea that people should be knowledgeable about what they drink. e co-founders eventually coined the tagline "drink wise," Ripps said. "But it was really just what embodied knowledge to us, and it was an owl." Today, the company employs 20 people and uses co- manufacturers to make its products Michael Stillman, CEO of the Quality Branded restaurant group in New York City, was an early investor. For one of the group's Italian restaurants, Ripps had developed a tea based on Campari, an alcoholic liqueur. Stillman, a family friend, said he liked Ripps' focus on healthier drinks, as well as her energy, marketing savvy and insights into the market. Ripps was ahead of the curve, for example, in the area of canned, ready-to-drink cocktails, one of the fastest-growing alcohol categories, he says. "She's the type of person I could see being a really great serial entrepreneur," Stillman says. Owl's Brew has attracted other investors along the way. A 2017 funding round drew the likes of Cambridge Companies SPG and ZX Ventures, an arm of beverage giant Anheuser-Busch InBev. e amount raised was not disclosed. Subsequent investors include Tidal River Investments, a group co-founded by Annie Lamont, a Connecticut-based venture capitalist and wife of Gov. Ned Lamont. In fact, Owl's Brew was the first early-stage investment for Tidal River, which aims to assist women entrepreneurs like Ripps. e undisclosed investment in 2019 supported marketing for Owl's Brew and growth of the company's sales team. In 2021, Owl's Brew raised $9 million in a funding round led by Formidable Asset Management, a Cincinnati-based hedge fund. Other participants included Tidal River, Stamford- based Wheelhouse and state-backed venture fund Connecticut Innovations. Ripps declined to disclose revenue but said it has grown 997% over the last three years. Brew Lab Tea, meanwhile, was sold in 2018 to e Republic of Tea, a California-based tea company. Ripps said she envisions Owl's Brew remaining independent. Learning along the way When she was creating teas for restaurants, Ripps had to convince suppliers to use original ingredients rather than natural flavors derived, ultimately, from chemicals. A raspberry-flavored tea or hard seltzer, for instance, may not contain actual raspberries, she said. Instead, they use flavors concocted by businesses known as flavor houses. Ripps faces the same pressure now, but on a larger scale. When she first began making Owl's Brew mixers, experts directed her to flavor houses. She recalls bringing a drink sample to one in New Jersey. "ey look at the sample, they taste the sample, and they're like, 'We can make this,'" Ripps said. But when she asked "how," she learned the process would not use the ingredients she had used, or produce the same health benefits. Nor did the substitute taste the same, she added. As a result, she has insisted that Owl's Brew products contain the original, organic ingredients. Today, the company has two product lines. One is a boozy tea, essentially a hard tea seltzer in flavors such as black tea and pineapple; green tea and peach; and white tea and watermelon. e other is a line of tea cocktails, which are flavored teas mixed with vodka or tequila. e products are available in 18 states, but Ripps expects the number to reach 20 this fall, with another six coming online in spring 2024. Also this fall, Owl's Brew will begin offering small kegs — so- called sixlets of about 5.2 gallons — for the first time, Ripps said. Not every product has taken off. Owl's Brew launched a beer line in 2017 called the Owl's Brew Radler, a mix of beer and tea. e product tasted great, Ripps said. But the packaging wasn't immediately clear enough for consumers to grasp what it was. "We learned a lot about having a really simple message that a consumer can understand on a shelf," said Ripps, noting the JENNIE RIPPS Continued on next page Jennie Ripps Founder & CEO Owl's Brew Education: Bachelor's degree in English, University of Pennsylvania Age: 43

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