West Hurley, NY
Jason and Corinna Geib never made their ginger elixir to remedy specific symptoms, but they also never needed to speak to the benefits of its simple, wholesome, and fresh ingredients. What they didn’t expect was to hear from so many friends that their product was positively affecting their digestion, their sleep, or even their blood pressure.
“So we knew there was something really powerful to it.”
It is no secret that lemon, ginger, and honey are centuries old herbal remedies. For Corinna Geib, these were three ingredients she regularly used when she wasn’t feeling her best. Corinna lived most of her life in Germany working on the administrative/event management side of business and often traveled to the States which was how she met her now husband, Jason Geib. As a business consultant Jason also traveled frequently, mostly working on continuous improvement throughout the United States.
In 2009 the couple settled in Ashville North Carolina for about three years. Corinna began attending their organic growers school and fell in love with an herbal remedies workshop. With a little inspiration from one of her teacher, she began to imagine a new way of making her favorite lemon, ginger, honey mixture. It wasn’t long before Corinna tried to make the elixir on a bit larger scale and both Jason and Corinna began to share it with friends and colleagues. Corinna never imagined starting a business for the elixir, but all of the sudden more people were looking to them for refills.
“Back then it was like, no, we need the security of our jobs, we kind of kept doing it for a year or so, just giving it away to friends. It was really never like, ‘I have this idea for a product’, it just slowly grew into something.”
After relocating to the Hudson Valley for Jason’s job, the two started to get serious about making their ginger elixir for the masses. In 2013 they found a small shared kitchen in Accord where they started their process.
“It wasn’t ideal, it was unheated in the winter, so I often stood with layers and layers in what was basically the equivalent to being outside.” Nonetheless, by November of that year, they sold their first bottle at a farmer’s market in Red Hook. Through word of mouth, their operation grew from making 20 or 30 bottles a month to over 8,000.
But they didn’t get there overnight. In less than a year a space opened up in Rosendale. It had been a cafe previously, so they had the kitchen space they needed. However, it also had a dining area in the front that they were going to need to utilize somehow, and so, ImmuneSchein Ginger Elixirs & Tea Haus was born.
“It was really a great way to use the term Tea Haus, which was something people already knew, and introduce them to our elixirs.”
The Tea Haus was an important step in building their brand. Rosendale was an area that got a lot of traffic, not only local but from people traveling. Their product was able to gain exposure from all walks of life.
“I still get people here today that say they found me in the Tea Haus and meant to drink tea but tried the elixirs and that’s what they’re still hooked on.”
Corinna and Jason outgrew the Rosendale space rather quickly and realized they had an important decision to make with their next expansion. When the couple looked into possibly using a co-packer, they realized that co-packing is really only an option if the process uses mostly dried or liquid ingredients, making it more efficient.
“and you can’t even blame them,” Corinna told us as she explained how difficult it is to work with fresh ginger on a large scale.
Sticking to their roots, Corinna and Jason weren’t willing to sacrifice their fresh, natural ingredients, which was the reason so many customers had grown to love their product. Their team had expanded by this point and going with the copacker would also mean putting employees out of work that they had built strong relationships with.
“From day one we wanted to do it right.”
Jason and Corinna instead decided to invest in a 6,000 square foot space in West Hurley. Two years ago now, they committed to not only moving their Tea Haus and elixir retail space, but to building up the capability of manufacturing their product, their way, and with the team they had originally built.
“It’s a challenge every day, but we could never go back and do anything else.”
Their recipe hasn’t changed since they first began in their kitchen back in North Carolina. They have always used New York State wildflower honey and organic Peruvian ginger. Their lemon juice, also USDA certified organic, is from Sicily and grows on volcanic soil.
Their original recipe is only three ingredients, if they were to ever change one of them, the product would taste completely different. They have, however, expanded upon the original to create about 12 other flavors. Each of these begins with the classic recipe of lemon, ginger, and honey with the addition of a fourth ingredient, some of which are limited edition and others they have year-round. Their renditions on the classic recipe usually lead to collaborations with local business owners, something that Corinna and Jason find very exciting. Their newest addition is a vegan elixir in which they partnered with Tree Juice in Arkville, NY. By using Tree Juice’s maple syrup as a substitute for honey, their original recipe is now suitable for vegans.
ImmuneSchein has a large following online, shipping their products throughout the country. They can be found in stores from Buffalo to New York City, and even in some restaurants. Corinna mentioned that one of their customer’s in the City makes their most popular cocktail using ImmuneSchein. The Emerson in Mount Tremper, NY, gives ImmuneSchein elixirs to all their spa treatment customers.
ImmuneSchein elixirs fall into their own category as a product. Where there are various apple cider vinegar products and syrups that have similar applications, most have a water or water/sugar base that ImmuneSchein does not. Compared to other fresh ginger shots, ImmuneSchein is much more palatable. They also sell all their products in glass and have larger size bottles that customers can get anywhere from 30-40 uses out of.
Another important part of their process is composting. All their ingredients are picked up once a week and turned into compost to distribute to local farms. All of their sample cups in the tasting room are also compostable and they compost about 9,000 pounds every year.
While ImmuneSchein has countless uses and applications, taking over the world, or even the market for that matter has never been their mission. No matter how large they grow, being a part of the community, collaborating with others, and making sure their product is consistently wholesome will always come first.
Location: 43 Basin Road West Hurley, NY
Contact: (828) 319 – 1844 or (845) 389 – 3497
Click here to visit ImmuneSchein’s website