A winemaker and a folk herbalist meet.

Ryan's a winemaker and the owner of ENSO, an urban winery and tasting lounge that's been a thirdspace in the heart of Portland for over fifteen years. Almost two decades behind a bar taught him what happens to a room when people have something delicious in their hand: conversations open up, people stay longer than they meant to, and the air somehow just becomes richer.

But as he, and the rest of the country, started drinking less, a simple question started to surface for us: could we have that same experience without alcohol?

We started looking for what we thought must already exist: a great non-alcoholic beverage that tasted great, provided a bit of ease, and wasn't laden with sugar or questionable ingredients.

Date nights included popping into charming shops to check their shelves. Bottles of expensive mixers, whose Instagram ads were too good to resist, entered our home. We tried every mocktail and NA wine that crossed our path. Many were disappointing, egregiously sugary, interesting in the wrong way. A rare few were lovely, and made it onto the menu at ENSO. But even those didn't feel like something we could drink nightly. And nothing was delighting us.

Meanwhile, there were always herbs in the house. High-end teas in sachets, medicinal herbs from the TCM pharmacy, plant medicine in all forms. Katie's love for medicinal plants started early: growing up with natural medicine at home, spritzing lavender on her pillow as a child, spending countless hours at the tea house blocks from her studio apartment. And her first job at a health food store, soaking up every ounce of knowledge she could from the store's coven of experienced herbalists.

Then a few winters ago, on a camping trip in the Oregon desert in temps so cold our water froze, Ryan reached for tea. And what may have started from necessity turned into an all-out love affair with tisanes.

A true formulator at heart, this winemaker started blending his own tisanes in our kitchen. Not just for flavor, but for felt effect, too. The experimentation continued: adding mouthwatering juices, a touch of sugar, a bit of spritz. Nuanced notes, restrained bitterness, tannins, nose, finish.

That's where Sens Botanicals began. Not in a lab, not in a venture capital firm. In an urban winery in SE Portland.

What we ended up building is exactly what we craved from the start: dry, layered, barely sweet, with passionflower providing a subtle sense of ease. Tastes good, feels good.

Sens spritzes aren't a substitute. They stand on their own, different from anything we've tried. And whether you're abstaining from alcohol or not, we hope you'll find they earn a place on your table and in your hand.