Founder Spotlight: Caitlin Cash (Kinship Milk Tea)
Meet Caitlin Cash:
We are an Austin-based ready-to-drink vegan milk tea with a focus on tea-forward flavors and refreshing drinkability. Almost the entire bottle is strongly brewed loose-leaf tea, and then there’s a splash of oat milk and homemade simple syrup made from raw cane sugar, served chilled to energize your day!
Location:
Austin, Texas, USA
When did you launch the business?
Summer 2021
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Startup Stage:
Bootstrapped
What led you to where you are today?
After graduating, I worked abroad for 6 years, first in education and then in cycling tourism. I feel really fortunate that I was able to experience so many different cultures in my 20s, and I spent most of my time in tea-forward countries like Thailand and Ireland. I was teaching English in central Thailand, and every morning before school, I would stop at the local 711 and pick up a bottled milk tea - and it became part of my daily ritual. When I moved back to Austin, I started tinkering in my tiny home kitchen and anytime friends would come over, I would force them to try my newest recipes - I wanted it to be good; I don’t like to do anything halfway. My friends started taking milk tea to work and then their co-workers started reaching out and asking to buy it. And I was like, oh shit, this isn’t for sale. It kept snowballing, and I realized that I had to either go for it or shut it down.
What do you wish you knew before embarking on your entrepreneurial journey?
I wish I had known how much of a roller coaster entrepreneurship is when I started! There are so many highs and lows, and you are just trying to navigate it on a day-to-day basis. Most of the days are a slog - you’re working on nitty-gritty details like permits, licenses, pricing strategy, etc. It’s super detail-oriented and most of that stuff is the thing that keeps the lights on. Connecting with customers and partners is my favorite part, and anytime I get to do in-store sampling events or other events, it really adds fuel to the fire. I am reminded every single time I’m out there talking to people why I’m doing this. Entrepreneurship is really challenging but really rewarding. There’s no playbook for it, and you’re constantly having to adapt and refocus on what your purpose is. But I wouldn’t change it; I love what I do!
What is the most difficult decision you've had to make regarding your business so far?
There's not one decision that stands out in my mind, but I do regret not making decisions more quickly. When I initially started the business, I had this mentality that everything needed to be absolutely perfect before I went with it. I didn’t understand that every single piece of the business is evolving; nothing should ever be static. Of course, the label will change 900 times, of course, you’re going to continue tweaking the product itself - everything is fluid. I wish I had let that perfectionism go a bit early on so that I could just make the best decision that was in front of me at the time. In general, there’s no rule book for being an entrepreneur. There’s so much to know and figure out on a daily basis, and a lot of times you’re scrambling to come up with a solution quickly. One of the biggest challenges was simply figuring out where to start. When I decided to start Kinship, I reached out to about 15 different CPG entrepreneurs based in Austin, and I asked if I could buy them coffee or lunch. Not a single one turned me down! That’s absolutely incredible - what a powerful statement on collaboration and lifting each other up. I asked each one of them a ton of questions and wrote down their answers, then I went back and found common threads. That was my rule book. It truly takes a village, and I’ve had so much mentorship and friendly faces helping me along the way!
What can you help the VEGPRENEUR community with?
There’s such a culture of paying it forward in the industry, and talking to people about their journey can be so helpful in steering your ship in the right direction. I'm happy to chat with anyone who needs a hand in getting started! I had so many mentors and friends give me advice when I started this business, and I want to extend that out to anyone who is starting off as well. It's great to have as many cheerleaders out there as we can. Lean on each other!
How can the VEGPRENEUR community help you?
We are working really hard on extending our shelf life and making sure that we can grow and scale the business in a sustainable way. We have tried a number of different pasteurization processes and most of them mute the flavors and take away the beautiful periphery tasting notes in the tea. We, most likely, need to move away from glass bottles in order to increase the shelf life. We are looking for innovative packaging that is sustainable and premium. If anyone out there knows of any flexible packaging options that aren't plastic, are good for the earth, and are nice to look at - shoot me an email!
Fun fact about you:
I taught myself to like olives over many years, and I've even started loving martinis!
Anything else you would like to share?
When I think of Kinship, I think of us as the unruly younger brother who’s really lovable but doesn’t follow the rules very well. We break a lot of the molds in tea culture by steeping our tea within an inch of its life to draw out all the flavor - that’s what allows it to stand up to the oat milk and sugar. Tea culture can be pretty snobbish and we aren’t that. We want to be approachable and playful. Our mission is connection through common ground. When I think of a bottle of Kinship, I think of it as a distillation of experiences and people I’ve met along the way during my travels. I want it to evoke a sense of nostalgia and make you feel something. Life is messy and imperfect, and so are we. We make high-quality vegan milk teas served chilled to energize your day. They are very tea-forward; we want the tea to be the star of the show. Almost the entire bottle is strongly brewed loose-leaf tea, and then there’s a splash of oat milk and homemade simple syrup made from turbinado cane sugar. We currently have 4 SKUs, and it’s easiest to understand their flavor profiles in terms of seasons. Earl Grey is spring - the OG and the best seller (most familiar to consumers so it’s a good gateway), with hints of lavender and citrus. It’s very perfumed and floral! Wuyi Oolong is fall – it’s a crowd pleaser, with hints of toasted hazelnuts, butterscotch, and apricot jam (very sweet and savory. Lapsang Souchong is winter - it tastes like a campfire in your mouth (the smokiness comes from the tea leaves being withered over pine branches.) It’s the tea version of mezcal. Our newest addition to the lineup - English Breakfast – is summer. It’s a no-frills, straightforward black milk tea – easy drinkin’ and one that you’ll grab again and again.
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