ImmuneSchein Ginger Elixirs

Jason and Corinna Geib

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Why did you decide to pursue this endeavor? What was your inspiration?

Since I was a teenager, I always used my homemade ginger lemon honey concoction not just anytime I didn’t feel well, but quite regularly as I always enjoyed that combination, so did Jason when I started making it for him after we met. In 2009, we both moved to the US and I attended an herbal remedy workshop in Asheville, NC that inspired me trying to mix and combine the ingredients in a different way than I was doing.  I experimented and had so much product that I gave it to Jason to share with friends and colleges, we shared with friends and neighbors, and not long after everyone came back for more, saying they never had anything like that and it made them feel so good.  I kept making more, giving it away, but Jason the business man he is said “you should quit your job and start a business”! I wasn’t ready then, but after we moved from NC to NY, we were ready to look into what it takes to create your own business. So the short answer is that we are inspired by the amazing ingredients nature has to offer, and by the responses and feedback we have received from so many people that said that they never had anything like that.

What are you most proud of so far with your success?

Being in business now for 7 years, so many answers come to mind.  But we are most proud of always sticking to our core values of creating a high quality product, a product that is made ethically and with high integrity, while caring for others and the environment, taking care of our team and paying fair wages, and also paying fair prices to our suppliers.

Why did you take the risk of moving into your new location?

This answer has a lot to do with the one previously. We have always believed in making our product by ourselves, meaning no outsourcing to co-packer.  With renting three different facilities in the past 6+ years, we decided it was time to invest in our own property. We also see the Hudson Valley as our home and the home for the business, and the 7 people on our team that also call this their home.  Providing work and a safe work environment for us and our team is very important to us and the new facility will be a brand new production space where we can all grow. The second part to the answer is that it was always important for us to keep a close contact and face to our customers, and with our new retail store and Tea Haus in Saugerties/Woodstock we have a wonderful place to welcome our customers.

Can you tell us about your facility and your environmental approach?

Our current production facility is rented, and with the improvements we made 4 years ago when we moved in was to switch all electric energy to renewable energy sources. Since being in business, we compost 100% of our post-process ingredients with the local Community Compost Company.

For our new production facility, we are working with an architect group that is known for their environmental and green approaches, and we are still in the very early part of this journey. The plan is to either include our own solar panels onto the facility and/or working with a local solar provider as a power source. We will continue with the before mentioned composting practices and always evolve our process and supply chain to continue a pursuit of being as close to zero waste as possible.

So, what does tomorrow look like?

Busy!

With the purchase of this new retail building and production space, we have a lot of work cut out for us in the near future.  In March 2021, we will begin construction for the new production facility and we anticipate moving our full production early 2022 at the latest.

The last few months have been so challenging for everyone, and with most things and activities shifting to online and digital, we actually believe that it is very important to create a place where people eventually (when safe to do so) can come back together, connect, feel safe and can heal to an extent.  We believe that our brick and mortar Tea Haus is exactly that.

We also want to focus on continuing to collaborate with many of our amazing maker friends here in the Hudson Valley and continue new product development. So far, we have partnered up with Fruition Chocolate Works and created a ginger elixir ganache filled dark chocolate, with Tree Juice Maple Syrup to create our vegan maple Ginger Elixirs, and with Horseshoe Brand Hot Sauce for our new Korean Ginger Hot Sauce, which features our post-process ginger and ginger elixir.

How do you keep up the passion?

Owning a business is wonderful, challenging, liberating, fun, scary, frustrating…we could think of so many more words. Therefore, keeping up the passion is really important so we don’t become lazy or complacent, but staying focused in a functional and also emotional way.  We hear from customers, saying how happy our product makes them, how they have it every day, share it with friends and family.  Listening to and watching our team having fun and to being part of this journey, working in a safe environment and being proud of what they do, all of that is the fuel for the passion to keep going and loving what we do.

How did you connect with Ed Ullmann at Wellness Rx and when did they begin carrying your products?

When we were located in Rosendale from 2015-2016, Patty Ullmann connected with us as she heard about our products and was curious to learn more about them and to bring them into the pharmacy.  Back then Wellness RX was also located in High Falls.  I met with Patty sometime early 2016 at the pharmacy, and we instantly liked each other and connected!  I left some of our products for her and the team to taste and shortly after she placed the first order. Since then, Wellness RX is carrying our ImmuneSchein Ginger Elixirs and we are so grateful for the support over the past years.

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Check out ImmuneSchein on our community partners page! https://www.wellnessrxllc.com/community-partners/immuneschein-ginger-elixirs

Shop now https://www.wellnessrxllc.com/store#!/ImmuneSchein-Ginger-Elixir/c/50725200