Built from Scratch: How a rented kitchen and hand-squeezed fruit became a versatile mixer

Johnna Rossbach never expected to become an entrepreneur. After spending 15 years in a career that left little room for creativity, she found the motivation to build something of her own after becoming a mother.

“I wanted to show my daughters what it looks like to be empowered, and that if you’re not happy with something, change it,” Rossbach said.

Rossbach loved cocktails, but she was disappointed by the mixers on store shelves. They often featured similar flavors, contained ingredients she wanted to avoid and required too much preparation.

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That’s when she created Mixly.

Rossbach drew on her background in marketing and communications and teamed up with Megan Sather, who brought design expertise to the venture. Together, they created a line of fruit-forward cocktail mixers made with real ingredients.

A shaky start

The very first night the team began working on Mixly, just about everything that could go wrong did. They started at 4 p.m. and didn’t finish until 3 a.m. 

When their juicer broke, they squeezed limes by hand. Then their labeler stopped working, forcing them to apply every label themselves.

Around midnight, Rossbach remembers looking at Sather and realizing they still had hours of work ahead of them. They had a choice: Call it a night and try again the following week or push through. The answer was clear. They turned up the music and kept working.

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“That was the moment we realized we made the best business partners,” Rossbach said. “We had the same determination and the same willingness to roll up our sleeves and figure things out, even when nothing was going according to plan.”

That night set the tone for building Mixly, which is based in New Hope, Minnesota, outside Minneapolis — and it’s a big reason the co-founders have always handled their own manufacturing.

Sticking to the vision

The team began developing recipes, with help from a mixologist friend to refine the flavors. Then COVID-19 disrupted their plans, forcing the founders to figure out production as they went. In an early interview, Rossbach said they were still making the products themselves in a rented kitchen while exploring ways to scale.

“When you start a business, there is no map,” she said. Rossbach described the hardest part as facing the unknown: the constant decisions, self-doubt and possibility of getting things wrong.

The company has been self-funded from the beginning, without outside equity investors. The founders were intentional about building something of their own and maintaining control of the business. But that also means every dollar matters, and the stakes feel deeply personal.

“We’ve put our own money, time and countless hours of work into Mixly,” Rossbach said.

Built for more than cocktails

Cocktails were the founders’ entry point, but they wanted their mixers to work for people who weren’t drinking, too. Rossbach was pregnant while the company took shape, just as the sober-curious movement began to emerge. 

The founders saw an opportunity to create a product that could be enjoyed with or without alcohol, so no one at the gathering had to feel left out.

“Let’s make this versatile. Let’s make this for everyone,” Rossbach said, recalling their early thinking.

That’s why Mixly’s alcohol-free positioning isn’t a recent response to a trend. The mixers have always been alcohol-free. What has changed is the surrounding market: More consumers are looking for flavorful drinks without alcohol, and retailers are beginning to recognize the variety of occasions Mixly can serve.

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“I think the interest in drinking less extends well beyond January or October,” Rossbach said. “People want a good option for an ordinary Tuesday, dinner with friends or a celebration.”

The mixers are designed to work whether customers add a spirit or pour them over sparkling water. That calls for more than sweetness. Mixly builds flavor with fruit, acidity, herbs and bitter botanicals. Its Bitter Orange Cherry mixer, for example, uses gentian root to balance sweetness with a more complex bitter note.

“A good alcohol-free drink does not need to apologize for what is missing,” Rossbach said. “It doesn’t have to imitate a cocktail to deliver that.”

New ways to enjoy Mixly

The founders began hearing from customers who were using Mixly in ways they hadn’t initially anticipated. One customer told them she added a mixer to her children’s water for extra flavor. Others mentioned using the products in cooking and marinades.

Then Rossbach’s daughters became regulars at a local dirty soda shop. After spending about $20 on two drinks, Rossbach started thinking about how Mixly’s flavors could work in dirty sodas, too. Her daughters now make the drinks at home and have even set up a neighborhood stand.

That discovery opened a new occasion for the brand. A Mixly flavor can go into a dirty soda, a mocktail or a cocktail. The drink changes; the mixer stays the same.

Growing without losing the original idea

In June 2026, the company changed its name from Mixly Cocktail Co. to Mixly Beverage Co. The broader name reflects products and occasions beyond the bar cart, including dirty soda and coffee.

The expansion has brought Mixly into major retailers. Five flavored syrups launched at 685 Walmart stores. The company expects its dirty soda products to reach nearly 4,000 stores by the end of November, and two holiday kits launched at 1,300 Target stores and online. Mixly says its products are now available in approximately 4,600 retail locations nationwide.

What you think customers want isn’t always what they actually want.

For Rossbach, that growth connects back to the idea the founders had from the beginning: Make something flavorful that people can share, whether they’re drinking alcohol or not. The market is catching up to that versatility, but it took hand-squeezed fruit, a rented kitchen and plenty of decisions without a map to get Mixly here.

When she first launched Mixly, Rossbach had an ultra-premium product line and a very specific idea of what the business would look like. But she quickly learned that what you think customers want isn’t always what they actually want. The team listened, made adjustments and became more comfortable pivoting as they learned what was working and what wasn’t. 

That willingness to change has helped refresh the brand, expand beyond cocktail mixers and grow into opportunities they never would have imagined when they were squeezing limes in a kitchen at 3 a.m.

Shop Mixly Beverage Co.

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