by Jeroslyn JoVonn
April 30, 2026
Monica Cornitcher, founding father of MEDASE Cocktails, shares how she rebuilt the enterprise after a hiatus following her co-founder’s demise from breast most cancers.
MEDASE Cocktails is approaching one 12 months since its relaunch following the demise of co-founder, Inga Dyer, from breast most cancers. Decided to honor her late pal, sorority sister, and enterprise accomplice, Monica Cornitcher is opening up about how she rebuilt the enterprise and is carrying the model ahead.
Launched in 2023, MEDASE Cocktails entered the rising non-alcoholic market, interesting to Gen Z, expectant moms, and others in search of a sober social expertise, AfroTech reported. The thought got here from two Howard College alumni and Delta Sigma Theta Sorority, Inc. sisters who reconnected in California and wished alcohol-free choices whereas socializing.
They self-funded the launch of the premium, natural, zero-proof model — named after “medaase,” which means “thanks” in Ghana’s Asante Twi — and debuted with two flavors: Whats up Sunshine Margarita and Goodnight Moon Moscow Mule, developed with a Black feminine chemist. However only one 12 months into launch, Dyer handed away from breast most cancers, leaving Cornitcher to hold the imaginative and prescient ahead.
After taking time to regroup, she has since relaunched the model, persevering with to honor her accomplice’s legacy.
“Do I hold shifting on? There was additionally a number of emotional issues that I used to be going via across the demise of a pal,” Cornitcher recalled of how she felt on the time Dryer handed. “Inga wasn’t the primary one who handed in my lifetime of most cancers. Each of my mother and father handed of most cancers, my brother handed of most cancers… I needed to sit with myself for a few months to determine what am I gonna do? Am I gonna hold shifting ahead? And in direction of the tip of the 12 months, I stated, ‘You realize what? Let me decide myself up, brush myself off, and let me restart once more.’”
In June 2025, Cornitcher relaunched MEDASE Cocktails with an expanded lineup, including 4 new flavors rooted in a imaginative and prescient she and her late co-founder had outlined in an in depth 60-page plan.
“We had a really, very detailed end-to-end marketing strategy… So it was not a shock to me that our subsequent flavors [were] gonna be a Jamaican Rum Punch, Lemon Drop, Outdated Customary,” Cornitcher stated.
Only a 12 months after its relaunch, MEDASE Cocktails is gaining momentum. Cornitcher is elated after securing a strategic funding to broaden distribution, operations, and advertising, and assist decrease costs and place the model for potential $20 million in annual gross sales.
With presence on Amazon, TikTok Store, and its web site, in addition to in choose retail places and hospitality venues, MEDASE is in growth talks with eyes on its key markets, together with Chicago, Atlanta, the D.C. space, and Texas.
MEDASE can be concentrating on youthful shoppers via a scholar ambassador program and campus pop-ups, tapping into Gen Z’s rising curiosity in mocktails, with a full rollout deliberate for fall 2026.
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