It Started with a SCOBY* and a Student Food Co-op
My love of teaching people to make beverages started with kombucha. I got my very first SCOBY* in 2012, and by 2013 I was already filling the small basement cafe of my student food co-op with students who wanted to learn about fermented tea long before there were dedicated refrigerated sections for the probiotic beverage at Whole Foods.
Teaching wasn't new to me. It started with my very first job as a gymnastics instructor at 14 and later led me to teaching art and group exercise. I have always loved the energy of a curious room and the moment something complicated suddenly clicks for someone.
*symbiotic colony of bacteria and yeast
The Health Journey That Changed Everything
I've been on the hunt for delicious non-alcoholic beverages since 2015. That was the year a health crisis quietly began to unravel my life. What started as inconvenient rashes and occasional stomach pain escalated into rashes covering my whole body, intense chronic stomach pain, and exhaustion that wouldn't lift no matter how much I rested.
I had freshly graduated from undergrad and was passionate about wellness. My post-college jobs all reflected that: slinging fresh-pressed juices, teaching indoor cycling and yoga classes. I was supposed to be an energetic 20-something fitness instructor. But I felt horrible.
The journey to figure out what was happening took years. I worked with countless conventional and holistic health practitioners, desperate for relief. Eventually, with the guidance of a holistic nutritionist, I landed on an elimination diet that included cutting out alcohol, coffee, gluten, dairy, eggs, and nuts all at once.
The shifts in my diet, plus targeted herbs and supplements, helped me slowly move toward feeling better. Eventually I found a baseline that helped me to more easily identify what was causing my symptoms.
Over time, I added some of those foods back, but alcohol just never returned to my rotation. The negative effects from alcohol on my body far outweighed the short bout of fun.
Ever since, following what makes my body feel good has become the driving force behind everything I've built to this day.
Back to School, Into the Plants
My health challenges inspired me to go back to school for holistic nutrition. I wanted to understand what was going on in my own body and I felt a calling to help other people navigate their own health challenges.
I needed a job during school, so I found a position at an herb store in Berkeley and fell in love with plants. Every shift, I was implementing what I was learning in school and talking with customers about herbs for their health goals. I dove deep into learning the properties of these botanicals, their flavor profiles, and how they could be tools for health.
Building a Business and Finding a Specialty
What started as a kombucha workshop side hustle grew into a full-time business of 35+ different workshops at the intersection of food, beverages, and wellness. Creating educational, hands-on experiences that facilitate connection has become my art form.
In 2017, I created my Elixir Happy Hour workshop — one of the first dedicated explorations of non-alcoholic beverages with a focus on functional ingredients. In the session, participants made drinking chocolate infused with herbs, spritzes with botanical syrups and custom blended teas.
I went all in on my business in 2019, teaching in-person public classes and corporate team building workshops around the Bay Area. I was hustling to try to get my business off the ground.
In 2020 the COVID pandemic hit. I pivoted to virtual workshops and, to my amazement, experienced 5x growth in my business from being able to connect with attendees around the country and the world.
How I Became Obsessed With Mocktails
My corporate clients kept asking for mixology workshops. I didn't drink alcohol or have bartending experience, but I have always loved to learn about all things food and beverage related, so I said yes and taught myself everything I could about cocktails and mixology techniques.
I created unique mixology classes that blended cocktails with health-focused ingredients and developed elevated options for both boozy and booze-free drinks because I wanted everyone to feel included.
Creating both versions of every recipe sparked a deeper question: what actually changes when you remove alcohol, and how do you compensate with flavor, texture, and complexity to make something that feels complete on its own terms?
Before being asked to teach these classes, I had written cocktails off entirely. They had alcohol in them, so they simply were not for me. But discovering the art and craft of making non-alcoholic versions lit a fire in me that I have been feeding ever since.
I became obsessed with making complex mocktails that could rival their alcoholic counterparts. I wanted to try every specialty non-alcoholic product on the market, experiment with kitchen ingredients, and integrate herbs and functional ingredients. The deeper I went, the more questions I had and the more I wanted to learn.
In 2022, I introduced dedicated non-alcoholic mixology classes and they soon rose to become my top booked workshop year after year.
What Teaching Non-Alc Beverage Workshops Has Taught Me
In over 13 years of facilitating food, beverage, and wellness workshops, I've taught close to 2,000 sessions to more than 22,000 participants. Many attendees are experiencing new ingredients, culinary concepts, and mixology techniques for the first time. Watching people go from unsure to empowered, and connect with each other along the way, is such a meaningful experience to be part of.
Folks are often surprised by how approachable it is to make a drink that is genuinely complex and delicious without alcohol. They come in expecting an overly sweet mix of juices and leave having discovered that a splash of apple cider vinegar can transform a drink entirely, or that a non-alcoholic spirit can be nuanced and satisfying.
One of my favorite things to witness is the skeptic conversion. Someone arrives at a mandatory corporate team event fully prepared to tolerate an hour of mocktail making. They leave as a curious, open-minded imbiber who is actually going to look at the zero-proof section of a bar menu. That shift never gets old.
I always knew I wanted to create something beyond a single workshop dedicated entirely to the craft of non-alcoholic mixology. Learning Liquids is that something — a true hub where you can get nerdy about zero-proof drinks, understand the “why” behind ingredients, and develop the tools to harness your alcohol-free creativity.
-Lila
