
Bowel Moments
Real talk about the realities of IBD...On the rocks! Hosts Robin and Alicia interview people living with Crohn's disease, ulcerative colitis, or indeterminate colitis (collectively knows as Inflammatory Bowel Diseases or IBD) and the medical providers who care for our community. Join us to meet people affected by IBD- we laugh, we cry, we learn new things, we hear inspiring stories, and we share a drink.
Bowel Moments
Meet Kim L.- Co-Founder of Wisher Vodka!
Kimberly LaRose's journey from a nine-year diagnostic odyssey to creating an award-winning vodka demonstrates the remarkable resilience found in the IBD community. After struggling with unexplained symptoms that doctors repeatedly misdiagnosed, Kimberly finally received her Crohn's disease diagnosis and discovered that gluten and corn were major inflammation triggers for her body.
Rather than seeing her dietary restrictions as limitations, Kimberly embraced a philosophy of "replacing, not removing." This positive mindset would prove transformative when she attended an event where she couldn't eat or drink anything due to her restrictions. What began as a half-joking call to a friend about creating their own vodka evolved into Wisher Vodka – a sugar beet-based spirit that's gluten-free, grain-free, and vegan.
The path from concept to award-winning product wasn't simple. Kimberly and her co-founder Emily researched 300 distillers, visited 60 personally, and developed a unique production process that includes lab testing every batch to ensure purity. Their commitment to quality and transparency has earned them multiple prestigious awards, including Grand Vodka of the Year with a remarkable 98-point taste rating from the Bartender Spirits Award.
Beyond the business success, Kimberly's story highlights how health challenges can unexpectedly open new doors. "I wouldn't have created Wisher had I not been diagnosed with Crohn's," she reflects. Her work supporting the Crohn's and Colitis Foundation further demonstrates her commitment to the IBD community that sparked her entrepreneurial journey.
Whether you're navigating dietary restrictions, seeking inspiration for managing chronic illness, or simply appreciate the story behind your spirits, Kimberly's journey reminds us that sometimes our greatest struggles lead to our most meaningful creations.
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Hi, I'm Alicia and I'm Robin and you're listening to Bowel Moments, the podcast sharing real talk about the realities of IBD Serve on the rocks. This week's guest is Kimberly LaRose. Kimberly is living with Crohn's disease and when she attended an event that didn't have any good gluten-free options, she and her friend Emily decided to create their own vodka. Thus the award-winning gluten-free, grain-free Wish your Vodka was born. You'll hear more about Kimberly's story, as well as more of the story of Wish your Vodka, in this episode, and visit the show notes to find some fun cocktail recipes. Cheers.
Speaker 2:Hi everybody, Welcome to Bound Moments.
Speaker 3:This is Robin and hi, I'm Tracy, your surprise guest host, and today we're excited to have our guest, kim LaRose, who is with Wisher Vodka.
Speaker 4:Nice to meet you and nice to be here.
Speaker 2:Thank you, kim. Like Tracy said, we're so excited to have you on the show. But our very first question Alicia usually says it's our unprofessional question, but I feel like that's not appropriate for this conversation. So I'm going to say our very first fun question is what are you drinking? Oh, cheers.
Speaker 4:So today I am serving up a couple wisher vodka cocktails. With cherry blossom season in bloom very soon and women's history month, we're doing some floral cocktails today, so I'm actually double fisted.
Speaker 2:I love a good double fist, and their glasses are beautiful too oh, thank you.
Speaker 4:So I'm right. Today this is a strawberry puree with rose water and wisher vodka and a little soda water topped off. And then this is our blossoms in bloom, which is orange blossom water, fresh squeezed orange juice, a little St Germain elderflower and wisher vodka to make kind of a citrusy floral martini. So we're going floral this month.
Speaker 2:I love that. If you have the recipes, I can share them. Put them in the show notes. I did see that you do have recipes on your website and on your socials Tracy. I know you're like just finishing up a conference over there on the West Coast, so what are you drinking?
Speaker 3:Yeah, there's a whole lot of sparkling water. That's exactly what I have going on. I have some lemon and some sparkling water and it's strawberry flavored, so I'm meeting Kim exactly where she's at, so it's lovely, but it definitely does not look as good as those two cocktails, which please share the recipe.
Speaker 2:We will. We will Surprise unexpected event. I am prepping for Scope tomorrow, so I am on a clear liquid diet and, unfortunately, while vodka is a clear liquid, I cannot drink that before a Scope. Last time when I talked to Kim, I was like I'm going to get some Wisharaka and have it, and so right now I'm drinking cherry Gatorade water. I have a soda, I have gummy bears next to me literally anything to keep me going through the scope prep process but I do wish I had one of those orange blossom cocktails, because that sounded delicious.
Speaker 4:You can celebrate next week being done with your exam.
Speaker 2:I'm going to cheers with my water. Cheers, everybody Cheers.
Speaker 3:Okay. So, Kim, I was hoping you could tell us more about your IBD story and how it's, how it's changed you, how it's affected you all the things.
Speaker 4:Yeah, I mean so with Crohn's. It took me nine years to get diagnosed with this. So it was. It was quite a process, a process of not feeling well, a process of piling on more and more symptoms and that got scarier and scarier over the years, and then also trying to figure some of these things out on my own, because I found that they were food instigated and so some of that I figured out on my own. But it was quite a process for me and it really changed my whole life as far as how I eat, how I take care of my body and how important I make that as part of my lifestyle. And then there's the doctor side of that and all that fun stuff too.
Speaker 2:Nine years sounds like you might have gone through the ringer, like a lot of people who have been on the show. Is there anything specific that stands out like with your journey to finally being diagnosed, or any of your experiences, like with the physicians, that feel especially meaningful to share with the audience?
Speaker 4:Yeah, I mean, I think it was really just believing in myself and not letting doctors tell me no, you know, I knew there was something wrong and I was going to figure it out. I didn't care how long it took or who I needed to tell to believe me, but I know, you know it started with a diagnosis of reflux, and then it was asthma, and then it was IBS, and then it was IBD and then it was finally landed on Crohn's and anemia. So you know, I didn't just want the doctors often tried to mask the symptoms instead of find the diagnosis so we can just avoid whatever or change life or whatever was needed in that direction. So, and I didn't want to just pile on the medications and cover up symptoms, so at one point I actually had a doctor tell me that I should just go see a therapist and I was like, well, I don't think I can make up bleeding or you know, some of these symptoms, there's physical symptoms you can't make up.
Speaker 4:You know I can't make these up. So you know I'm I said I'm sorry, but this is. You know, you're just not the doctor for me then and that's okay. And she called she's actually the one who called me the next day and she said I handled it very poorly. I'm very sorry, but this is what I really think you should do, and I think you should go talk to this GI doctor. And that's what led to my final diagnosis was a woman telling me I should go see a therapist and me telling her no. So it's really been quite a process.
Speaker 3:But I'm so glad you called that out that physicians are people too in this process and they definitely don't have all the answers. But I'm glad that she took it upon herself to reach back out to you and that's what ultimately led when you went and saw the GI. How quick was the turnaround till you got your diagnosis?
Speaker 4:Well, obviously there's a lot of tests involved. You know you have to go through the colonoscopy, the endoscopy I had to swallow a camera, I had, you know, all the tests, the stool exams, all those fun things. So that took some time but it was fairly quickly, you know, fairly quick. After that that I reached that diagnosis and that was life-changing for me because I finally had my answer, I finally knew how to work toward getting better and I did.
Speaker 3:So Kim. When did you first notice?
Speaker 4:any symptoms. Well, it was actually when I was a kid. So I remember going to my dad and saying, dad, I don't think I can have corn. And he's like, oh, everybody's like that. That's how we handled things back then, right, like we didn't go to the doctor all the time and they just said, oh, that's normal. And I remember, after lunch, like I just thought everybody had gas after lunch, like no, that wasn't, like, that's not how it works. When I was a kid, I just, you know, that was my normal, so I thought it was everybody's normal.
Speaker 4:You know, stomach pains, you know I just, I always excused everything away. I had stomach pains. I'm like, oh, maybe that's just my ovaries or I'm getting ready for my period. I just always excused everything. I always found a reason to justify those or oh, I must be sick. But then when my symptoms got scarier, there was no explaining them away anymore. I'm like, okay, this is too serious. And that was later, in much later in life, when I was in my 40s. So, you know, I had, I started to have vertigo and I started to stutter because it was. I was getting inflammation in my entire body, which was scary, and I had brain fog, I had heart palpitations, I had UTIs that would just continuously. I felt like I was always going on an antibiotic for a UTI, you know, too often. You know just there were so many symptoms and they just continued and continued. So, but those early ones were kind of funny.
Speaker 3:Well, and it sounds like it was a bunch of vague symptoms, right that it was really hard to get to the diagnosis because the symptoms were very this and, especially as women, we have a very big systemic profile when we are experiencing any kind of GI upset or IBD or any of those things, and so it does become very hard to nail it down. So you really do have to be A your own advocate and B your own inspector gadget right Of figuring it out and not letting the answer that you're given be the answer you accept.
Speaker 4:Yes, yeah, and that's difficult when a doctor says you have reflux, take some Tums and then you live on Tums and you still don't feel good. So it's just, you know, it's just ongoing and keep you know, keep diving into it, figure out, because I feel I feel so much better now, you know, and then there's other things to manage. You know, I think nutrition and for me it's nutrition, elimination of certain foods, exercise, sleep is so important, seeing your doctors when you need to exercise. Oh, I mentioned that, didn't I? You can say it more than once that was important.
Speaker 3:We all need to hear it more than once your little reminder, just in case, right.
Speaker 4:But you know, like getting getting enough sleep I feel, like the times I don't, I have the triggers. Anxiety can be a huge trigger for symptoms as well. So I have to learn ways to manage that and you know, just minimizing the instigators and maximizing the healthy lifestyles that make you feel better.
Speaker 2:And I'm going to throw in my little PSA Alicia would be surprised if I didn't especially when it comes to diet.
Speaker 2:I know you mentioned not everybody's the same. Not everybody's going to have the same trigger foods, and don't let food scare you and don't eliminate so many foods to where you aren't getting enough nourishment. If you feel like you're starting to be afraid of food or you're eliminating everything or you're eliminating multiple huge food groups, please talk to your GI or a registered dietitian. We need food in order to combat the inflammation. We need calories, we need protein, we need fat. We need all of these things to help us get healthier, and so I would hate for somebody to restrict themselves into a worse flare. So I mean, what you mentioned was very few things and not extensive, but I just want to make sure that people understand that we do need food for fuel in order to combat the inflammation. So if you get to a point where you feel like you're afraid of food, please, please, please, talk to your GI. Have them refer you to a dietician that specializes in IBD.
Speaker 2:I call my dietician, my therapist, and I mean it sincerely. She is a nutrition therapist, but also you know that fear of food, even 25 years in, like I am, whenever symptoms pop up, it's that oh, here we go again, right. And so that fear, no matter how much you've worked through it in actual therapy, it comes back every single time.
Speaker 4:Yeah, I'm a strong believer in replacing, not removing. You know, find ways around it. There are very few things that I haven't found a way to make by just changing or altering a recipe. One of those if anyone has any secrets, I really miss pretzel bread, but I, you know, I really believe in replacing. Don't remove things. I make you know I love to cook and I make you know gourmet meals. Sometimes I like I really enjoy food, I really enjoy cooking and there's just really ease, sometimes simple and sometimes fun ways to replace those things that you can't have anymore so you can still get the nutrition you need, so you can still enjoy your food. So that I just, like I said, replacing, not removing food from your diet.
Speaker 2:I feel like in your story you shared, like the and Tracy, reinforced the notion of the big symptoms. I feel like sometimes, as women too, we like have to run down a laundry list Is this my period? Am I hormonal? Am I going to start my period in a week or did I just finish it Like? Is that what this feeling is? Or did I eat something that causes gas or did I?
Speaker 2:You know, it's like this whole laundry list of things that we have to go through that it quote unquote I'm using air quotes could be, and we have an excellent habit of gaslighting ourselves. Yes, that this is normal. We normalize symptoms like oh well, this is how it always is, so this is normal. And then it's IBD is sneaky. This way, it sometimes slowly progresses, slowly gets worse, and it's just slow enough to where you're like not realizing that it's gotten so bad until something happens.
Speaker 2:Somebody's like somebody tells you something, somebody notices something, something smacks you in your face. You're like oh my gosh, how did I get here? It is a lot worse than what I remember it being, and you're still a fully functioning female person. Yes, all of this stuff going on. So I totally relate to you saying like oh, it was just, you know, it was corn. And then it was just, oh, maybe I'm starting my period, or maybe, like I feel, for me, when I first got diagnosed, I was like, oh well, maybe I just have a cold, or maybe it's the flu, or maybe it's food poisoning, or like I literally went through all of these things until I went to my sister one day and she's like I'm gonna need you to go to the emergency room, like right now. Like right now your skin is gray, you have, your eyes are sunken. Like I'm gonna need you to go to the emergency room right now. If she hadn't, I probably would never have, you know, gone to the emergency room when I did.
Speaker 4:So I feel like we're very good at that as women a lot of the time not all women, not all the time, but I feel like we're very good at that a lot of the time. Yeah, I had a similar experience. I got scared enough that I went to the emergency room and it was a young doctor and he's like the emergency room is for emergencies and I said, Well, I thought, bleeding out of two orifices, that I shouldn't be, and you know, all these other symptoms I could name them off were emergencies, I was afraid. And then he's like oh, I forgot about that.
Speaker 3:Yes, yes, and it's. It's so true, because they don't see the broken bone, they don't see the open gash, they don't see those types of things, and so we talked about this in the past about pain is that it's really hard with IBD sometimes to ensure that the provider that you're dealing with, whomever they are, understands what you're experiencing, because, like Robin said and you've said, we do mental gymnastics on justifying every single one of our vague symptoms until we are to the point where it is beyond, and so when somebody asks us, you're not really an emergency, that's when, like, the fire comes out of our ears and we're like, okay, these are all the things that are happening to me and you're not going to turn me away.
Speaker 4:I'm stuttering and I can't think of my phone number, like that's not normal. I thought something was going on in my brain. You know there's those are emergency situations potentially. I don't know what it is and I was scared.
Speaker 3:There's anything that comes from your story in this conversation, it would be to continue to remind everyone that what they're experiencing is real and valid and say it, and just keep saying it and find the right people to help you. It's so important. Okay, so now that I was Debbie Downer, robin can talk.
Speaker 2:No, I was just agreeing with her?
Speaker 3:I was agreeing with her.
Speaker 2:No, I mean sometimes our show, you know, sometimes our show just goes in a myriad of directions. Sometimes we do go down this road where and maybe I'm feeling contemplative because I am having, you know, an endoscopic resection tomorrow, which is something that I've never had before and then listening to you, you know, share your story. Sometimes I get it just in that mindset right, I'm going to a more serious place, I'm asking more serious questions, I'm sharing more serious things because of what I'm going through personally, and so you were not being Debbie Downer. Sometimes we just take this mostly lighthearted and funny show into a more serious direction, and I'm kind of sad about that right now, because I really wanted to talk a lot about vodka.
Speaker 3:I know I was like this is going to be amazing. Robin picked me for the right show. She totally picked me for the right show.
Speaker 2:She totally picked me for the right show. Sorry to everybody who's listening, I am in my feels right now, apparently, and on a soapbox. I mean, when Alicia and I started the show, the whole premise was sharing a drink with our guests, right, sharing a drink with our guests and having a real conversation about what life is like with IBD, and we finally get somebody who is actual distiller on the show and a patient and I have to be so and I can't even have a drink because I'm doing scope prep.
Speaker 4:And the irony of it all, that's okay. I have two drinks, so I'll take care of your drink for you. I appreciate that.
Speaker 2:You mentioned diet playing a big role for you in your initial retelling of your story. How did diet play a big role for you?
Speaker 4:So for me I had a lot of inflammation that was triggered by food and so eliminating a lot of those foods really changed everything for me, particularly for me, and everybody is different obviously, so you know not everyone is going to have the same reactions or triggers or response as I did, but for me it was really. It was corn, it was wheat, those were the biggest ones was were gluten and corn. So any products in the US those are very prevalent in all of our food. So you know you have cornstarch, corn syrup, it's in everything and it's hidden away. So removing those from my diet and some of the like gluten, I had kind of figured out a little bit on my own, but I was missing corn and that diagnosis giving me that FODMAP diet to kind of like start from, and it just it really did help me find that final answer and feel good again.
Speaker 3:And how long have you been in this process, using this diet, changing the way that you eat? Has it been consistent for you or has it been something that kind of goes up and down and you've had to rethink and rechange?
Speaker 4:Yeah, I mean so it has. There have been some changes, but since my diagnosis it stayed fairly stable as far as the things. There's one new thing got added in for me, which was cumin, funny enough, but before that it was hills and valleys. It was trying to figure it out. It was trial and error, but since my diagnosis it's been pretty stable. I bring a business card to every restaurant I go to that lists my allergies so that the chefs take it seriously. I found that to be life-changing too, that the chefs really take it seriously and they can check ingredients, and it's helpful for the restaurants as well.
Speaker 2:I love that you bring a card with you. So many times when I talk to patients they don't want to say anything. When they go to a restaurant, they feel uncomfortable saying something. They don't want to be a bother, they don't want to be a burden. And you can eat out. Everyone. If you're listening, you can eat out and it's not a bother or a burden to state your needs, or even if you don't want to say anything out, you know, while you're eating dinner beforehand, go over the menu, go to the website, see what they have that you can eat. Call the restaurant in advance. If there's an email address, email the restaurant in advance and let them know that you're coming and what your food restrictions are, as I think that Tracy could agree with me.
Speaker 2:As a restaurant family growing up in the restaurant business, the people in the kitchen want to make you happy. They want you to enjoy the food that they're cooking. As someone who has worked in a kitchen in a restaurant, I feel like I can speak confidently for a lot of people in the kitchen Like, preparing food for other people brings us joy, yes, and we want people to leave the establishment with a good experience and loving what we prepared. So don't feel like you're a burden. Don't feel like asking the kitchen to prepare something special or different or remove ingredients for you is going to be a burden for them, because people in the kitchen, they want you to enjoy what they're preparing.
Speaker 4:So thank you for saying that and I also, you know I try to make it easy for them. But you know, with the business card but also sometimes, if I can, I try to eat early or late, so preferably early for me, but so that it's not in their busiest time or, like you said, I call ahead and they're so appreciative of that and they, like you said, they just they're so accommodating when they can be. So I've had great experiences with restaurants.
Speaker 3:I'm really so glad to hear you say that and, as Robin said, I'm excited about the business card with the information on it because I can tell you, recently in Europe and then recently in New Orleans, going out to eat, the first question, before we were even seated at the table in every location was is there anything you want us to know about food allergies or any other intolerances you have? And I feel like that is the result of this community really embracing that they need the elimination of certain things so that we can enjoy being out and in these environments. So thank you for doing that in that way.
Speaker 4:And that has changed over time. For sure. I remember in the beginning of this process for me, you know we'll say even before my diagnosis like 10, 12 years ago people would ask me if I had celiac and I wanted to ask them if they had herpes. I'm like, do I have to bring my doctor's note to eat here? I know that's silly, but you know know, like I'm pretty open, I don't care, I feel comfortable talking about it, but some people might not. So it was inappropriate and they wouldn't want to serve you unless you had celiac. And I'm like well, I don't have celiac, I have Crohn's. Is that checked on your mark? Is that okay? Do you approve?
Speaker 3:Does that qualify me? Do I get into the big kid table?
Speaker 4:Exactly, but right now I feel like restaurants are so much more open and understanding to allergies because they're so prevalent and they have to be. They have to accommodate people.
Speaker 2:Was it this work in figuring out what you could tolerate, what you could eat, that led you to Wisher, or was that like something completely different?
Speaker 4:That was later. I think it was later. I had already realized I couldn't have weed, I couldn't have corn. I went to an event and I couldn't eat or drink anything because everything was wheat corn or something. Couldn't eat or drink anything because everything was wheat corn or something. And so I called my friend and now my co-founder, emily Gillis, gillis, terry, and I said Emily, I went to this party, I couldn't eat or drink anything. We need to make a vodka. So it kind of started almost as a joke. But then we started diving in deeper and learning about trends and doing all this research and talking to all these people, and we found that a lot of people felt like we needed more transparency in this industry. And so we're like, okay, I think we might actually be onto something. I think that there's a need here. We need to fill this need.
Speaker 3:So how many years in development, how many years from the watershed moment of we need to develop a vodka to where you actually had a product, you had packaging, you had everything to go to market.
Speaker 4:Well, I think I was diagnosed in 2019, 2018, 2019. And then the year of COVID is when we came up with this idea that we were going to start looking. So we happen to have a lot of time. So this is our COVID baby.
Speaker 2:And.
Speaker 4:I have four big babies now grown 17, 18, and 21. But this was our COVID baby and we had time. So we just started calling everyone we could think of, from restaurants to bartenders, to distillers, to distributors, just talking to anybody. We would just get on the phone and talk to everybody we could think of and then it kind of came down to okay, now we know what the market wants, we know what we need to make. Now are we really doing this? You know it's time to put some money out there if we're going to really do this. So then we went to visit. We started with 300 distillers, narrowed that down to 60 distillers that we visited and then chose our distiller from there and decided to make Wisher.
Speaker 3:So extremely impressive.
Speaker 4:Oh, and I don't think I answered your question. So we actually we launched online on March 12th of 2022 and we launched in the real world in restaurants and liquor stores in 2023. So about two years ago.
Speaker 2:Okay, so what is unique about Wisher? Because you said that you went to a party. There was nothing you could drink, so you did this research. So why can you drink Wisher?
Speaker 4:So we make Wisher from sugar beets. So usually vodka is made from potatoes or corn or wheat and so we use sugar beets and making Wisher gluten-free, grain-free and vegan. And we also lab test Wisher so that you can be certain that you can sip with confidence, knowing what's in your vodka. That's incredible. Yeah, it was all about bringing transparency to the industry. You know, in our vodka it's made with sugar beets, yeast and water. We make it in small batch. It's not mass-produced neutral grain alcohol which is like a strong, like, I guess, moonshine, sort of mass-produced out of corn and wheat. Generally we make ours out of the ingredients and then we lab test after every batch, after we've made it. We do use a gluten-free yeast.
Speaker 2:Now I need to know more, because you did your research, you found your distillery, you found your product that you're going to make it out of, and then you decide to actually launch a business. But I was snooping around on your LinkedIn and you're already winning awards. So I mean, you went from this is our COVID baby to now, just four short years later, winning awards. So talk to me about that.
Speaker 4:Oh, it's been really exciting and such an honor too. We were recognized as the grand vodka of the year by the bartender spirits Award, which is a global competition. We were also named Producer of the Year, gold Medalist, and they rated us 95 points overall, with 98 point rating for taste. So yeah, it's been a really successful year and you know, just, you know, kind of authenticates our brand and legitimizes and validates what we've been doing, because it wasn't just about making any vodka, it was about making a quality, nice, you know, nice, sippable vodka. So so that was the. That was a successful year for us. That was our goal.
Speaker 3:And, as we saw from your two drinks that you brought to the podcast today, you can drink it with confidence.
Speaker 4:Yes, we can sip with confidence. That's what we like to say. And you know, the lab testing makes it one step further, so that you know there's no gluten, there's no corn, there's no grain in our product.
Speaker 2:I actually was introduced to you by somebody that I know at the Crohn's and Colitis Foundation in the DC Maryland chapter, so I know that you are involved with the Crohn's and Colitis Foundation. Can you talk about your involvement? How did you get involved with them and what kind of stuff do you do with the Crohn's and Colitis Foundation?
Speaker 4:Yeah, the Crohn's and Colitis Foundation reached out to us and asked us to help support with some of their events in the DC and Maryland area, and actually initially nationally. But we just don't have a national license quite yet. So of course we are excited to contribute and partner with them and we've with all of their events their galas, their cocktail competition event, all of their events. We're there to support them in any way we can. And how long have you been doing that?
Speaker 3:work with them.
Speaker 4:Pretty much since the beginning. For the last two years, since we've been in the real world, I'll say, not just online. We've been working with them since the beginning and we've supported their gala the last two years, as well as their cocktail competition. So two years ago we offered their welcome cocktail for their competition and this past year we actually they awarded us the Crohn's and Colitis Foundation craft for a cure cocktail competition award. That's a mouthful. A lot to say that they awarded us the best cocktail, so that was quite an honor as well.
Speaker 2:Love it what I will say is that I listened to a couple of podcasts that you were on, but I saw that you and this could be old, so, if it is, just let me know. Your vodka is available in DC, Maryland and now.
Speaker 4:Florida, illinois. We just obtained our license in Illinois, but if you go to wishorvodkacom, you can see which stores we're available in, but also we ship to 42 states, so you can order a bottle on our website as well. Yeah, and at Wishor Vodka, across social medias all of the social medias you can see where we'll be offering our next tasting or sampling or event and different things there too, and do you?
Speaker 3:regularly include your story or stories of patrons who partake in your vodka related to how they can replace your vodka and still enjoy being able to have a drink.
Speaker 4:Yeah, absolutely. We always share that's. You know that's the forefront. If I'm telling someone the quick and dirty about our vodka, I'm going to say this is Wishar vodka. It's gluten free, grain free, vegan and sugar free. We make it from sugar beets. We lab test and we just won grand vodka of the year. We were rated 95 points overall and 98 points for taste. So this is a high quality, sippable vodka and that's what we're sharing to every person. We get our hands on, so they get a little bit of all of that.
Speaker 2:Kim, it has been so lovely getting to know you better and I thank you so much for agreeing to come on the show. And it's time, unfortunately, for me to ask you our last question. So what's the one thing you want the IBD community to know?
Speaker 4:Well, your struggle doesn't have to define you, but it can create a new you. You know, just move forward into the new you and accept it and appreciate how it's going to change you. And adversity can also be your advantage if you look at it the right way. I wouldn't have created Wisher had I not been diagnosed with Crohn's. I wouldn't be doing what I'm doing today and I love what I do. So, you know, just move forward and see the positive in it would be my advice.
Speaker 2:I love it. I have often said that I wouldn't be the person I am without my diagnosis. 100% would not be the person that I am without that. So I feel that I mean I'm not happy about it, right, this second prepping for my scope, but you know, Well, and I'll go even further we wouldn't be the family that we are without it.
Speaker 3:All three of our children and our grandchildren wouldn't be the kids that they are without having gone through this as a family. And oh, I'm getting emotional about it too, so I'm going to back up.
Speaker 4:Do you have a family history? I'm curious if you have a family history.
Speaker 3:It's a very vague family history. How do you like that? So we have my. Our paternal grandmother had symptoms most of her life. She was diagnosed with colon cancer when she was in her 50s and they believe it was a result of or, you know, the family has surmised that it was a result of some type of IBD. Robin, myself, her girls, my son all have some form of symptom. Robin is the only one of us, I believe robin you can correct me, she's the only one of us with a diagnosis, but we all have some version of symptoms that we we've had to manage.
Speaker 2:I call it gastric distress.
Speaker 3:Yes, isn't that nice. It should be called gastric hysteria. You remember when they used to say women, women were diagnosed with hysteria. It should be called gastric hysteria. Make it sound crazy.
Speaker 2:Yeah, remember when the prescription of that was like sending women away to the sea. I would love that now. Please just send me away to the sea for fresh air and leave me there. That would be lovely. Yes, exactly.
Speaker 4:Fresh fish, fresh fruit, that's all I need. That's right. Ship us some vegetables and some wish or vodka, we're all good.
Speaker 3:Yeah, I am totally down for that. I think we have a trip. I think this is a bowel moment vacation planning session.
Speaker 2:Anybody interested in a bowel moments retreat to the sea?
Speaker 4:Yes, exactly they do have those, don't they have those gluten-free cruise ships? Have you ever done that? I have not done that. But yeah, I haven't either.
Speaker 3:But I'm like that's something we could totally do, I mean. I mean, you guys are a testament to what can happen when you have an idea and the will to make it real Robin with this podcast, you with your vodka and your co-founder. So what we can accomplish when we just have an idea and the will to make it happen is incredible.
Speaker 2:Thank you so much again, Kim, for joining us, Thank you, Tracy, for popping in and being my co-host, and thank you everybody for joining us. Thank you, Tracy, for hopping in and being my co-host, and thank you everybody for listening. Cheers, everybody, Cheers.
Speaker 4:Thanks for having me.
Speaker 1:If you liked this episode, please rate, review, subscribe and, even better, share it with your friends. Cheers.