About DRAM
Hi, we're Shae and Brady, the owners of DRAM! We founded our company in our tiny Denver kitchen in 2011. We're located in the quaint mountain town of Salida, Colorado where we craft all of our goods from scratch at the DRAM workshop.
Brady does all of our design work/branding, and Shae creates all of the recipes. Together we manage every aspect of the business. We’re also married! DRAM was created out of our shared passion for plant magic, and delicious food and drink. We are avid gardeners, and love foraging the Colorado wilderness for wild herbs and mushrooms. We’re plant freaks!
DRAM has never taken any outside funding, which is very uncommon in our industry. We’ve built our brand over the past 10 years, always maintaining our commitment to authenticity and transparency.
Are you committed to sustainable business practices?
We don’t greenwash our business with the word “sustainable.” There is no such thing as a sustainable consumer packaged good, unless everything that has been extracted from the earth to manufacture the product is being returned as compost. We are committed to low-waste manufacturing, which includes: eliminating as much plastic as possible from our products, composting all of our used herbs, cutting down our weekly waste to 1-2 landfill bags, using post-consumer recycled packaging and biodegradable packing peanuts and fully compostable plant fiber rings on our canned beverages.
Do you have a storefront?
We do not have a storefront, but if you find yourself in Salida all of our goods can be purchased at Howl Mercantile.
What does DRAM mean?
A dram is a measurement, an 1/8th of an ounce. This is roughly the amount of bitters used in a cocktail.
Are you a CBD company?
No. We launched DRAM in 2011 with a line of herbal bitters, teas and syrups. We started making CBD products in 2018, and we consider Cannabis to be just another wonderful plant to work with!
Are you herbalists?
Shae has a degree in Food Science, Botany and Ecological Agriculture from the Evergreen State College. She has 15 years of experience in herbal medicine and foraging.
How much startup capital did you have to launch DRAM?
Shae quit her bartending job in 2011 with $700 in her bank account. DRAM has grown from a spirit of perseverance, and a passion for plants! Brady switched to working for DRAM full time in 2016, and it has supported us ever since.
What has the evolution of DRAM been like?
In 2012 we put down roots in the ghost town of Silver Plume, Colorado. We bought a run down bakery and opened a tasting room and bar called The Bread Bar. After 4 years in the dark, cold and haunted climate of Silver Plume we realized it was time to move on to somewhere more hospitable. In 2017 we packed up everything and relocated to Salida where we now operate DRAM, and The Poor Farm Historic Guesthouse. It has been a long and strange journey, and we’ve met loads of incredible folks along the way! We’ve also learned a lot of lessons about working in creative isolation, working as a married couple, historic building restoration, and living life in haunted buildings with residents long past. We’ve got lots of stories to tell!
Where are Shae and Brady from?
We are both from Colorado! Brady spent a handful of years in San Francisco living on a boat, and Shae was living in Olympia, Washington. We both returned to Denver in 2011, met at a bar Shae was working in, and the rest is history!