press

Maybe you’re sick of kombucha. Maybe you’ve tried out every possible brand and flavor at Whole Foods and you’re tired of fighting your way through the tech bros and fitness influencers to the display case. Or maybe you’ve been making it at home. You’ve got your mother and your scoby and you’re delicately brewing some ‘booch up every week, but damn are you tired of babying it. Or maybe you’re the witch-y health food focused weirdo (we mean this with love) of your friend group. You’re crystal collection is strong and you always know about the next niche health craze.

Or maybe you just want a good cocktail. Either way, Sip City, D.C.’s first and only switchel company is coming for your business.

Nourishment is an essential part of the Jewish religion. We nourish ourselves every week through the Shabbatritual, bringing good food and meaningful interactions into our weekly traditions. What’s more, after meals we say Birkat Hamazon, grace after meals, which is actually the blessing on nourishment.

Nourishment takes many forms, be it through prayer, a yoga practice or the healthy food and drink you put into your body. That nourishing mindset is the motivation behind Sip City, a local company producing a drink called switchel that is full of all-natural ingredients like apple cider vinegar and ginger.

My personal prediction is that this team is on the brink of something big. As someone who once shamelessly created a rum and Pedialyte cocktail the morning after a particularly festive night in Dewey Beach, I have first-hand knowledge of the limited availability of healthy cocktail pairings. This, in conjunction with Switchel’s day job as a high-quality recovery drink, could make it the beverage our sun- and spin-obsessed city has been missing.

Two D.C. young professionals created a healthy beverage that contains no preservatives or concentrates that's perfect for after working out or mixed into a cocktail. The Switchel beverage is created with fresh citrus, ginger, apple cider vinegar, and honey, which helps to keep your body feeling good while drinking delicious flavors!

Co-founder and CEO Nikki Blank started making Switchel out of her home kitchen in Boston as a creative outlet to the 9-to-5 corporate routine and as a delicious functional health hack. Her co-workers quickly became curious about the many strange jars of liquids dominating her desk, and asked for a taste. The response was overwhelming — so much so that she started a switchel side hustle. After moving down to DC, Nikki met Josie Gibbens — an equally passionate switchel connoisseur and at-home producer. They launched Sip City in January 2018, selling out at Glen’s Garden Market within 15 minutes of launch.

A few weeks ago, I celebrated Shabbat with a yoga mat, a vegan rice bowl, and a tall glass of switchel.

This Friday night experience was nourished by OneTable, and hosted by GatherDC’s very own blogger – Judith Rontal! It was, in a word, “namastastic”. (Yes, that’s a word I just made up.)

One of the things that made it so awesome, was the drink that accompanied it all, switchel. This nourishing, apple cider vinegar and ginger based drink made my tummy and taste buds happy – all at once. Turns out, the company – Sip City –  behind this delicious beverage, was founded and is owned by a young, Jewish woman living in DC – Nikki Blank, and her business partner Josie. Lucky for me, I got the chance to grab coffee with Nikki at GatherDC’s brand new townhouse where we chatted all things switchel. Read on!

If you’ve lived in Washington for any time at all, you know that this is a very happy hour-happy city. You can do happy hour outside, you can do happy hour by a fire, you can do happy hour for dinner, you can do happy hour for less than $10. You can even do two happy hours in one day without changing bars. Happy hours are such a big part of the working culture in Washington, it can start to feel normal to never go home without downing a couple of $6 cocktails first.

These two 20-somethings have created their version of Switchel.  As it says on their bottle, it is nature’s sports drink and a cocktail mixer. Sip City’s mission is to help people drink mindfully they way they eat and exercise! I was able to chat with Nikki, and she told me when she and Josie moved from Boston and Nashville, they saw how accurate the saying 'work hard, play hard' is in DC and wanted to give them a way to still let loose on the weekend, but in a much healthier way!

She-E-O and Tufts alum Nicole Blank (A&S ’15) just launched her new drink company, Sip City, and if you haven’t heard of it yet, you will. Nikki and her business partner Josie have brewed a solution to the dilemma that so many young people face: how to drink alcohol and still be (kind of) healthy about it. It’s called switchel, and it’s an old, colonial-era, probiotic recipe, and they are bringing it back. I got to interview Nikki about switchel and her experience creating it as a female entrepreneur and after hearing her story I don’t just want to make Sip City a part of my weekly routine, but I want to start my own freaking company!

Sip City Switchel is a startup beverage company that is, as the name suggests, focused on creating switchel beverages. The company, which hails from Washington, D.C., is positioning the product as “nature’s sports drink & cocktail mixer” and has launched with three flavors.  The three flavors, which include The Nashville, The Boston, and The District (more on the names later), all start with a base of apple cider vinegar (ACV), ginger, and citrus (either lemon, orange, or both).