Ground Floor: Cedar Rapids entrepeneur hopes whiskey sauces one day become world famous

Shea Ryan has a plate of chicken wings to thank for her new business.

While living in the Minneapolis area, Ryan frequented a restaurant that served chicken wings glazed with Irish whiskey sauce. After returning to Cedar Rapids about a year and a half ago, Ryan missed her favorite appetizer so much that she set out to re-create the dish at home.

'I'm pretty good with flavors,” Ryan said. 'I can usually identify what's in a recipe by taste.”

After what Ryan said was a long process of trial and error, the exact combination of ingredients continued to elude her. But all was not in vain.

'In that time, I developed a lot of other sauce flavors, and I ended up with some pretty good recipes myself,” Ryan said.

So good, in fact, that she decided to bottle her whiskey sauces and sell them to the public through her new business, Cedar Rapids Whiskey Sauce Company.

Before Ryan even sold her first bottle of whiskey sauce, she began laying the groundwork for what she hopes will become a household name in the condiment industry.

Ryan's first priority was satisfying all of the legal and regulatory requirements that pertained to her new business. She obtained the necessary health department certificates to produce sauce in her home kitchen. She also made arrangements to use commercial kitchen space at a couple of different locations around town.

Another priority was to create eye-catching packaging for her sauces. To that end, she conducted market research to see what already was available on grocery store shelves so she could design packaging that would stand out from the rest. She then developed her own logo and carefully selected a bottle style to best showcase her product.

'I want that visual element,” Ryan said. 'I want people to look at my product and think that's a beautiful display of sauces.”

After testing out her products on friends, Ryan began selling her sauces to the public in June at local farmers markets and through an online store.

Cedar Rapids Whiskey Sauce Company currently offers 11 varieties. Flavors include the original, which is a sweet and sticky glaze, several fruit-based sauces such as blackberry and hot strawberry, and a chocolate whiskey sauce, which Ryan said makes a great topping for ice cream.

Ryan eventually would like to open a retail store and restaurant where customers can taste the sauces before buying. Her long-term goal is even loftier.

'I want to grow this business into something big, something that's produced in Cedar Rapids and known around the world,” she said.

AT A GLANCE

' Owner: Shea Ryan

' Business: Cedar Rapids Whiskey Sauce Company

' Email: crwhiskeysauce@gmail.com

' Telephone: (800) 313-1455

' Website: cr-whiskey-sauce.myshopify.com

' Facebook: www.facebook.com/pages/CR-Whiskey-Sauce-Co/797418850330339