Portland Syrups was started in 2012 when two friends wanted a great-tasting beverage that didn't have alcohol, but also wasn't loaded with sugar. Fourteen years later, we still brew the same way — just in kettles that hold up to 100 gallons instead of a saucepan on a kitchen stove. Our giant is still someone else's micro, however, we've come a long way from those first batches.

This year, Inc. Magazine named us #1,120 on its list of the 5,000 fastest-growing private companies in the country. Within the food and beverage category specifically, we came in #1 in Oregon and #20 nationally. We're growing faster than we ever have, and we're doing it with a team that's still under 30 people. Nobody here has a corner office. We just have more kettles running.

Every Portland Syrups flavor starts with something real: fruit purée, whole herbs, whole spices, botanicals — a fresh peach, a hunk of ginger root, whole cardamom pods. We started out making syrups with about 40% less sugar than typical mixers, and that's still true of most of our lineup, though you'll notice some of our newer, coffee-focused flavors run more concentrated. Every syrup is built on pure cane sugar instead of high-fructose corn syrup, and we never use artificial flavors or colors.

We don't use words like "craft" or "artisanal" — they've been stretched across too many mega-factories to mean much anymore. But our process is still what most people would call high-touch: sorting and weighing ingredients, tasting every batch for consistency, capping each bottle by hand. A person touches every step.

These days we run out of two buildings a few blocks apart in SE Portland: one is all production, the other holds fulfillment, inventory, and our offices. This year we also brought solar power online at the production building, the finish line on a two-year project. Solar panels now run our brewing and bottling, and offset most of what the fulfillment building uses too. That same building is home to our Café & Bottleshop, where Portland locals can pick up online orders in person, try every flavor we make, and order a coffee, matcha, or soda made with any syrup on the shelf.

Coffee-focused flavors have driven a lot of our recent growth. We built them first for people who wanted barista-quality drinks without the coffee-shop line. Then we launched the Barista Series, giving coffee shops a premium alternative to mass-produced syrups without having to make their own in-house.

In the years ahead, we want to be on more backbars, café shelves, and home kitchen counters across the country. We'll also keep chasing new flavors that make it easy to mix up whatever's trending at home, whether that's a Banana Bread Chai Latte or a Lavender French 75.

Come find your new favorite flavor, and let us know what you make with it.