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 loss of life from breast most cancers.
MEDASE Cocktails is approaching one yr since its relaunch following the loss of life of co-founder, Inga Dyer, from breast most cancers. Decided to honor her late buddy, sorority sister, and enterprise associate, 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 looking for 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,” that 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 yr 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 associate’s legacy.
“Do I hold shifting on? There was additionally lots of emotional issues that I used to be going by means of across the loss of life of a buddy,” Cornitcher recalled of how she felt on the time Dryer handed. “Inga wasn’t the primary one that handed in my lifetime of most cancers. Each of my dad and mom 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 the direction of the tip of the yr, I mentioned, ‘You realize what? Let me choose 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strategy… So it was not a shock to me that our subsequent flavors [were] gonna be a Jamaican Rum Punch, Lemon Drop, Outdated Original,” Cornitcher mentioned.
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