Made in Tarrant: Local mixers business brings new, all-natural flavors to spirits

Fort Worth natives Evan and Jennifer O’Connor started I Am Root at the start of the pandemic. Their products are created in the Elixir Kitchen Space in north Fort Worth and can be purchased online or at the markets and festivals where they table.

This interview has been edited for length and clarity.

Ismael M. Belkoura: What made you and Jennifer decide to start I Am Root? What did you do before, and then what made you decide to commit?

Evan O’Connor: I was working at a place called Fort Brewery & Pizza. I was the culinary director there. It was during the middle of the pandemic. I was making flavors for their beers and seltzers. I left because it was really, really hard to keep a restaurant staffed. It was really frustrating. 

I wanted to step out and kind of control my own destiny and start our own company. At first, we did catering. We did salsas, hot sauces, little bit of the drink mixes. Then the owner of the brewery contacted us to continue making the flavors for them. So that’s kind of what sprouted off the cocktail mix side of the business. We were making their flavors for all their beers and seltzers, and still do. 

Belkoura: Can you talk about all the products that you create?

O’Connor: We’ve got a wide range. Our blackberry mojito, which is made with fresh blackberries, lime mint and cane sugar. We also go to the opposite end of the spectrum and do old-fashioned mixes as well. I personally hate going out to a restaurant and paying god knows what it is for a cocktail now, $12 to $15 sometimes, and the mix is totally off. We wanted to make things that we would like and that we know would really wow people.

The reason why we do what we do with the all-natural mixes is because it’s so hard to find something in the market today that’s not just random colors and corn syrup. We wanted to focus on doing everything from real and fresh ingredients that people could trust. There’s so many beautiful colors in nature. There’s absolutely no reason to put these artificial colors and dyes that are doing god knows what to people’s bodies. The name “I Am Root” represents the all-natural aspect.

Belkoura: What is it like working with your significant other?

O’Connor: Doing this together with my wife has been exciting, tiring, all of the above. She still works her full-time job. She’s not really able to take part in the kitchen. The role that she is taking on, which is probably even bigger than the role that we have at the kitchen, she does everything in the background financially. She has completely designed our labels from scratch. She comes up with all the names, all the recipes. She’s been key in at least 75% of all of the flavors that we’ve come up with.

There’s been some trying times. It’s getting better as we grow and figure things out. But the first couple years, there were many, many nights where we’re both up till 6 o’clock in the morning and have to be up at 7 o’clock to go to a market. It’s been very challenging, but in the end, I think it’s kind of brought us even closer together.

Belkoura: You mentioned that you don’t have a storefront. How do you get your product out to the masses?

O’Connor: We go to festivals and farmers markets. We have people pushing our stuff at some of our commercial locations. We don’t have a website currently. We do all of our delivery and shipping sales through social media outlets. When we talk to our customers, when they’re buying, we like to explain that, “Hey, you don’t need to just come see us at markets. We’re available throughout the week as well.”

We are currently trying to get into some store shelves, but it’s been a little bit difficult. It’s just getting through the red tape on some of these corporate spots. We do have a couple little spots that we’ve been in and out of. We’re currently at a store called Sweet in Granbury. We’re dealing with a company called Whiskey Morning Coffee out in Tolar. 

Our sizes that we bring to markets last for a little while, but our hope is that people are going to contact us back for larger parties, weddings, barbecues, Christmas parties, all different types of occasions. We do have some regular customers that we deliver to that get just the regular sizes. Our hope is that it’ll turn into larger orders.

Belkoura: Y’all started during the pandemic, and it’s been running for the last five years. So it’s been relatively successful. What’s the long-term goals with the business?

O’Connor: The long-term goals with the business are definitely to get into distribution for our commercial accounts. We don’t ever want to send any of our stuff off to a manufacturer. We always want to keep it in-house. There’s some really complicated things that go along with some of our recipes. Keeping it local, keeping it fresh, and making it more available to the public every week is our goal right now.

Belkoura: What’s customer satisfaction been like? 

O’Connor: Not everybody’s going to like every flavor. We’ve gotten a little bit of negative feedback here and there. But a lot of it is people coming back saying, “Wow, what did you do to this stuff? And how do we get more?” In any of our reviews on Facebook, Google, everybody’s been very happy as far as we can tell. We can tell because of the large orders that come in. We’ve gotten multiple weddings that we’ve done in the past year. Our sales from the start have doubled every year, and we’re looking at tripling sales this year as well. I think we’re headed in the right direction.

Belkoura: You started in a time that was pretty tumultuous. What would you say to any person out there that has a business idea but is scared to make the jump? 

O’Connor: You just got to do it. There’s never a perfect time for it. If you’ve got an idea and a passion, you’ve got to jump on it.

I’ve always worked for someone. And starting a business, it’s almost like a free fall off a cliff at first. I’m hoping there’s something down here, that my idea is going to catch me. But if you don’t take the risk, there’s no reward involved at all. With any business, there’s gonna be ups and downs. I’ve had to do some things for supplemental income in the first couple years to make sure we’re keeping the bills paid. But if you have the passion, it will be rewarded, especially if you’ve got a product that people love.

Ismael M. Belkoura is the health reporter for the Fort Worth Report. Contact him at ismael.belkoura@fortworthreport.org. 

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