Tea was a big passion for me. I was fascinated by the fact that you could get both health benefits and different flavors by putting something in water. I began building Brew Lab, and then Owl’s Brew locally in New York, seven years ago, through different restaurateurs that I knew. Along the way I became a tea sommelier.

What we do at Brew Lab is we look at a restaurant concept and then design a tea program to match that restaurant concept.

Five years ago, I decided I wanted to go into CPG and launched Owl’s Brew Mixer, and then Owl’s Brew Radler. My co-founder Maria and I joke sometimes that [launching Owl’s Brew] was like putting together a jigsaw puzzle without the picture that helps you put it together. Having a finished product for the first time is just an amazing, amazing feeling.

My pivot from my time at Penn into tea? …I went into freshman year loving the classics. I studied Latin and Ancient Greek and loving reading. I [was] an English major, and the idea that I would ever make something physical would have been insane for me to contemplate. It’s just really amazing how you can take a liberal arts education and end up in a place that’s so different. — September 26, 2018 • Photo by Brooke Sietinsons