Love a good cocktail? Improper Goods will make any alcoholic or non-alcoholic beverage extra delicious. Their products make great gifts for anyone who takes a lot of pride in their home bar.
Where does your passion for food come from?
I grew up in a house that cooked. Making things from scratch was the norm and generally much better than what I would find elsewhere. This continued in my own adult life, cooking with my friends in college and it was one the things my husband and I bonded over.
Tell us about your culinary journey.
My mother who was cook, helped get me my first job working the counter at a gourmet deli in Seattle’s Laurelhurst neighborhood where she worked. From there I continued in the food service industry doing almost every job from prep cook to dining room manager. As my knowledge of food and drink expanded I pushed the boundaries more of what I made at home. Making my own bitters started as an experiment that turned into the spark for a business.
Where is your favorite place to eat?
Honestly, most of the time my own kitchen table. I do have a soft spot for Italian and love Ava Genes in Portland as well as Assagio’s in Seattle.
Where do you source your ingredients?
Since bitters contain so many different herbs and botanicals sourcing is huge for us. We take great pains to find vendors we can trust who are also a consistent source for us. That said we source from all over, but do work farm direct whenever possible. Our pomegranate comes from Homegrown Cellars, a family farm in Northern California, our vanilla comes from La Faza who work directly with small farms in Madagascar to offer fair trade, sustainably sourced vanilla. We get Rosemary from Vibrant Valley Farms right here in Portland on Sauvie Island.
Tell us about a new product you are working on.
There are a lot actually, I’ve got four different bitters in the testing phase right now. However, this fall we’ll be launching our first seasonal botanical syrup that is a collaboration with Starvation Alley cranberry farms – Cranberry Five Spice. It’s so tasty!
What will our fans find at your booth this fall?
We’ll bring a selection of our best selling bitters and syrups as well as our brand new mini cocktail kits, perfect for about 4-5 drinks.
What are your goals for your business in the next year?
We are looking to take on investment and launch a canned cocktail.
What was your biggest challenge when starting out?
Scaling up production. Every time we made a significant increase in production we ran into totally unforeseen issues, like the chip board for our case boxes having a season and being out of stock. We never thought case boxes would be the issue.
What’s the best part of your job?
Seeing people’s faces light up when they taste something they truly enjoy.
