Today we’d like to introduce you to Holly Skaggs.
Hi Holly, so excited to have you with us today. What can you tell us about your story?
I am an artist, innovator and founder of Wild Tonic, a nationally
distributed, better-for-you beverage called jun – a rare ferment made
from honey and green tea. It was born from my lifelong fascination
with alchemy, nature and transformation.
Growing up in Alaska, I first experienced the art of fermentation through my
grandmother, who transformed wild dandelions and blueberries gathered from her
homestead into wine. Years later, after earning a degree in architecture from the Rhode
Island School of Design, I built a creative life shaped by art, nature and bees.
As an artist, I worked with encaustic, an ancient medium made from beeswax and damar
pine resin. Over time, my painting led me to an entirely new canvas: a rare, effervescent
ferment crafted from organic honey and green tea. During fermentation, these two
superfoods are transformed into jun – a vibrant, living tonic with naturally occurring
organic acids and live cultures that may support digestive wellness, along with
antioxidant compounds from green tea.
What began in my Sedona kitchen blossomed into Wild Tonic and a thriving brewery in
Cottonwood, Arizona. Since founding the company eleven years ago, I have guided it
through challenges, reinvention and extraordinary growth.
My journey has taught me that when something is created with imagination,
resilience and reverence for the Earth, even the smallest seed of an idea can
grow into something far greater than you ever dreamed possible.
I’m sure it wasn’t obstacle-free, but would you say the journey has been fairly smooth so far?
Before COVID, Wild Tonic was well funded, thriving and growing at more than 100% year over year. Then, almost overnight, the pandemic and an unexpected divorce struck simultaneously. What had been a rapidly ascending company was suddenly thrust into survival mode.
We went from more than fifty employees to the ten extraordinary, fiercely loyal people who remain with us today. With little outside funding and an industry transformed by COVID, we had no choice but to pivot, reinvent ourselves and become wildly creative. Every obstacle demanded a new solution, and every financial shortfall required another leap of faith.
One of those leaps came when I reluctantly agreed to compete on the business reality television show America’s Real Deal. Against seventeen other companies, Wild Tonic won the entire season. Unexpected moments like that—not traditional private equity or venture capital—became the bridges that carried us across the most difficult stretches of our journey.
Today, Wild Tonic has emerged from survival mode and launched into Costco across five states. Yet even with that extraordinary validation, securing the capital required to support our growth remains a formidable challenge. Less than 2% of available investment capital reaches women-owned companies, making an already difficult road even steeper.
We have proven the product. We have proven the market. We have proven our ability to survive, adapt and rise again. Capital is the final obstacle standing between Wild Tonic and the national expansion now within our reach.
Alright, so let’s switch gears a bit and talk business. What should we know about your work?
At my core, I am an artist. Whether I am creating a painting, developing a beverage or building a company, my work has always been about transformation—taking raw materials, ideas and experiences and turning them into something unexpected and alive.
I was born in Anchorage, Alaska, and earned my degree from the Rhode Island School of Design. My early career immersed me in the worlds of fine art, architecture, printmaking and glass. I directed the John Nichols Gallery in New York, served as associate director of the William Traver Gallery in Seattle and spent many years as studio director for internationally renowned glass artist William Morris. I also collaborated on printmaking projects with some of America’s leading architects, including Frank Gehry, Michael Graves, Richard Meier and Steven Holl.
As an artist, I became known for encaustic painting—an ancient process using beeswax, pigment and damar pine resin. I was drawn to the medium because it is both luminous and unpredictable. Each layer must be heated, fused and transformed by fire. The process requires patience, instinct and a willingness to surrender some control. In many ways, it became a metaphor for my life.
My work has been exhibited nationally through galleries including Friesen Gallery, Wexler Gallery, Abmeyer + Wood Fine Art and Austin Art Projects. It has appeared at SOFA Chicago and Art Palm Beach, and is held in the permanent collections of the Museum of Northwest Art and Seattle University. I have also had solo exhibitions, including Where Instinct Meets Impulse and Visions Between Thought, and my work has been featured in publications devoted to contemporary encaustic art.
My fascination with beeswax eventually led me from painting with wax to fermenting with honey. I became captivated by jun, a rare ferment made with honey and green tea, and began treating fermentation as a new artistic medium—living, evolving and impossible to control completely. After years of experimentation, that “liquid art” became Wild Tonic.
Today, I am the founder and CEO of Wild Tonic, a nationally distributed, better-for-you beverage company based in Cottonwood, Arizona. We specialize in jun and are known for bringing this rare ferment into the national marketplace in both nonalcoholic and hard-jun formats. I also designed the distinctive cobalt-blue bottle and the visual identity of the brand. Blue is the first color bees are drawn to when pollinating flowers, so even the packaging carries the story back to its origin.
What sets me apart is my ability to move fluidly between art, science, nature and business. I do not see product development as separate from my artistic practice. Flavor, color, packaging, fermentation and storytelling are all part of one composition. I approach a beverage the same way I approach a painting: with curiosity, experimentation and respect for the materials.
I am proud that my artwork is held in museum collections, but I am equally proud that an idea born from beeswax, honey and imagination grew from my kitchen into a nationally distributed brand. Most of all, I am proud of the resilience behind that journey. Wild Tonic survived circumstances that could easily have ended the company, yet our small, fiercely loyal team continued to innovate and ultimately launched into Costco across five states.
I believe what truly sets my work apart is that it has never been driven by convention. I have spent my life transforming one medium into another—wax into paintings, honey into living tonics and adversity into possibility. For me, the greatest work of art is creating something meaningful that did not exist before and having the courage to bring it into the world.
What’s next?
My vision for what comes next is to continue my work on a transformative collaboration between Kako Earth a non profit organization, the Siekopai Nation, and Wild Tonic—one that protects the Amazon while building a regenerative, Indigenous-led economic model. Together, we can responsibly cultivate Amazonian botanicals, develop premium functional beverages and wellness products, and share them with the world through Wild Tonic’s innovation, manufacturing, and distribution platform. By establishing organic farming and regenerative operations in Ecuador, we can advance Indigenous sovereignty, preserve biodiversity, create living-wage employment, and support the enduring stewardship of the Amazon which is vital to all life on planet earth.
Contact Info:
- Website: www.wildtonic.com
