“Grew a Vermont beverage startup into a nationally distributed brand, raising $1.7M in outside investment. Now exploring its next chapter as an Aiken’s Gore product.”
WHAT IS SWITCHEL?
Switchel was a Vermont farming drink from the 1700s. I first heard about it from my dad, who remembered drinking it as a kid while haying fields in Vermont.
Years later, in 2012, Up Mountain Switchel started with a $300 investment and an idea to build a beverage company around it.
The first batches were made in a big red barn with fresh ginger, raw organic apple cider vinegar, maple syrup and water.
The first farmers market was cold and rainy. We sold $500 worth.
THE ORIGIN
The idea was to take an old farming drink almost nobody had heard of and see how far it could go.
It was delicious and healthy. It was real, had cultural meaning, and there was a lot to play with.
Pretty far, it turned out.
At a holiday market in Brooklyn, Trevor Kunk discovered us and brought the drink to Dan Barber and Blue Hill. Up Mountain went on to independent stores, Whole Foods, restaurants and national distribution.
The New York Times wrote about us.
A $300 start eventually led to $1.7 million in outside investment, remarkably little capital for the scale we reached.
THE LABEL
The first labels were drawn by hand.
Later came professionally printed bottles and cans, but the words underneath the name stayed:
“AN AMERICAN HERITAGE BEVERAGE”
In Brooklyn, we spent 12-hour days bottling mason jars by hand while listening to Action Bronson.
Four years later, we were making switchel with him on television.
He made his own recipe. And drew his own label.
PRODUCTION
Four ingredients on the label didn't mean an easy product to make.
Fresh whole ginger is not an easy ingredient to put through a beverage factory. Neither is real maple syrup cheap.
We kept both.
Behind the drink was a trade-secret brewing process and proprietary equipment developed to make it commercially at scale.
Production moved from the barn to a commercial kitchen in Brooklyn and eventually to larger-scale manufacturing. As Up Mountain grew, production had to change around the recipe rather than changing the recipe around production.
STILL UP MOUNTAIN
Today, Aiken's Gore is producing maple syrup in Vermont, giving us control over what was once the most expensive ingredient in a bottle of Up Mountain.
The recipes, photographs, films, stories and relationships are still here too.
Where switchel goes from here remains an open question.