Today, we’d like to introduce you to Chris Harrison. Chris was introduced to us by the brilliant and talented Abby Milan.
Hi Chris, we’re so thrilled to have you sharing your story with us today. Maybe we can kick things off by having you introduce yourself to our readers? We’d love to have you go into your story and how you got to where you are today.
In 2010, myself and my two co-founders Adam Higginbotham and Robert Higginbotham, were sitting around our backyard fire pit in Austin, TX. We were in our early 20’s, had been friends all through college, and were each going our separate ways. Robert was headed to Washington DC, I was going to the University of Kansas to continue my research in biology, and Adam was finishing up his degree at UT. While we each had our separate path to embark on, we couldn’t shake the idea of starting a business together.
We kicked around a lot of ideas at the time, but the spark for Liber & Co. was after we went a local craft cocktail bar in Austin and got into a conversion with one of the bartenders. At the time we were all cooking hobbyists, so we had a natural curiosity around anything to do with the palate—cocktails included. One of the big takeaways was the importance of syrups in cocktails. We wanted to make great cocktails at home and so we set out to buy some syrups locally. We went to liquor stores all throughout Austin and could only find artificially flavored syrups—nothing like what cocktail bars were making in house using real ingredients. So we set out to make syrups that rivaled or bettered what was being made at the best bars in the country, and to make those available to home bartenders and restaurants/bars looking to upgrade their menus.
We started making syrups on our stoves at home. Our first product was Spiced Tonic Syrup and we had cinchona bark shipped in from a farmer Guatemala. Slowly but surely we expanded our product line to include grenadine, passionfruit, ginger, orgeat, and so on.
We outgrew our first facility in 2013 and our second facility in 2022. We moved into a brand new space in Georgetown where we operate today. We’ve got a lot of new products lined up that we’re quite excited about!
Please tell us more about your brand, Liber & Company
We make essential cocktail syrups for bars and restaurants and for people who enjoy a great cocktail at home. We have 16 products currently with our eyes set on much more. Whenever we look back on when we started this company 12 years ago, we’re amazed at how much has changed. We went from renting time in a commercial kitchen and hand pouring every bottle, to having multiple filling lines today. It took a long time, but we are so proud of the whole team and all the people that helped us get to where we are today. If there’s one of thing that sets us apart from the others, it’s our commitment to sourcing the best raw ingredients in the world. Our product development is long and we go through a lot of different raw ingredients, but by the time we have the finished product, it’s something really special.
Abby Milan and Willinglee have been great to us and I know you’ve got a great relationship with them as well. Maybe you can tell our audience a bit about Abby Milan and Willinglee and your experience with them.
Willinglee is one of the wholesale accounts that we work with and absolutely love their curated gift boxes. Their founder, Abby, has an incredible eye for pairing products together, and we love seeing how she incorporates our cocktail syrups into their gift boxes. If you’re feeling creative, you can also build your own custom gift box with a few of our most popular syrups, so the options are nearly limitless.
Willinglee’s commitment to sourcing artisan made, high-quality products makes us the perfect fit. Our syrups are a wonderful gift for fans of cocktails or for those who enjoying entertaining guests in their homes, so we couldn’t be happier to be featured in their shop.
Website: www.liberandcompany.com
Instagram: http://www.instagram.com/liberandco
Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCUdztJDstdVRGZ4C2kSyBGg
TikTok: https://www.tiktok.com/@liberandco
Image Credits
All photos taken by Liber & Co.
