Like many, Danielle Mann found a new interest borne out of the Covid-19 pandemic in 2020. Like a few, she took that interest and turned into a burgeoning startup.
Like many fewer, she was a member of the medical profession — an obstetrician-gynecologist (OBGYN) — who was creating a product that some of her pregnant patients could not drink: a gin-based ready-to-drink (RTD) cocktail.
Mann discovered a liking for sloe gin in particular. She started adding soda water “and a little bit of lemon to cut the sweetness.”
“There was the summer drink, and [we] loved it and every time I served it to anyone who’d come over during the that Covid season [they] loved it as well,” said Mann, co-founder and CEO of Rivergreen Cocktails.
She was referring to what would later be branded as Rivergreen Cocktails' “Bee’s Knees” drink made with gin, lemon, honey and sparkling water. The cocktail, which features honey sourced from a bee farmer in Columbia, Kentucky, recently won a silver medal at the New York World Wine & Spirits Competition.
The product comes in two other flavors: Gimlet (gin, lime juice, cane sugar and sparkling water), and Greyhound (gin, red grapefruit juice and sparkling water). All three varieties are 12% alcohol by volume (ABV) — and all use real juices with no artificial flavorings.
I recently spoke with Mann and the company’s co-founder and Creative Director Chris Witzke at their production facility along River Road in Louisville, located at 2732 River Green Circle — hence the company’s name.
“It’s like band names, man. They’re hard,” Witzke said.
“It is as simple as that,” Mann added.
The actual company behind Rivergreen is JN Spirits which Witzke referred to as “license plate language” for the spirit of choice.
Mann said the reason to start the brand came down to seeing a "missing niche" in the growing spirit-based RTD market, given the lack of "a proper cocktail" in the gin space.
To Mann’s knowledge, in the growing line of distilled-spirits-based RTDs to have roots in Kentucky, Rivergreen's products are the only one to date that is actually made in the commonwealth — having started its production line in the winter of 2021.
Mann has left her private practice as an OBGYN, but now works one or two 24-hour shifts a week at a hospital in Lexington, Kentucky, so that she can put more focus into growing her brand.
Buckeye bound
The products are only available in Kentucky through Cincinnati-based Heidelberg Distributing Co., but Mann and her team are preparing to enter the Ohio market by the start of 2024.
Rivergreen currently has approximately nine employees, two of whom are full-time, but Mann hopes to increase that number in the upcoming months.
The brand, which recently came out with its first variety pack, first arrived on store shelves in Kentucky in May 2021.
Although she declined to disclose actual revenue numbers, Mann said that since February, Rivergreen has had a 200% to 300% increase in month-to-month sales compared to 2022. She attributed that uptick in large part to getting into more stores, particularly Kroger Wine & Spirits in October 2022.
Rivergreen also has a branded bar at Lynn Family Stadium and has products available for sale at Louisville Slugger Field. The brand has kept up a very ambitious schedule of doing three to six tastings a week throughout the commonwealth, Mann said.
Mann presented at this week's Venture Connectors luncheon at Story in NuLu, as she is about to kick off a seed round of $1 million. Up until this point, the company has been bootstrapped.
With the funding, Rivergreen Cocktails will look to establish a sales team in Ohio, creating a full-time position and purchasing a bigger canning line.
“I want to see how far we can take it,” Mann said of her overall aspirations and future growth. “I certainly am very conscientious about growing too fast before we’re ready. I want to hit one state at a time. I’m not into necessarily blasting out as fast as I can until we get those resources."
