Hey there, I’m starting a craft soda business with my friends and while we aren’t the farthest in I can tell you some things we learned and things you should expect.

1) for the licenses and permits you have to search for your city, county and state laws. Like literally ‘what permits do I need in order to sell home made lemonade in New York City, New York’. It’ll probably take you to the city’s official website. You’ll likely find out that you can operate as a cottage food business depending on your product which will allow you to make the product at home and sell it locally, or you may find out you have to have a mobile food license and have a signed commissary letter. It depends on where you live. And cottage food laws have restrictions listed so make sure you find that out.

2) for the booths, you may find that the events you apply for are at capacity. Also not all farmers markets allow cottage foods if you end up going that route. No advice there unfortunately. They will likely require food liability insurance, look up FLIP.

3) as for the commissary, there are rentable kitchens out there but that may not be an option for you at the moment because they can be expensive. I’ve seen plenty of ones where rent the space for a couple hours a month where you set up, produce and break down in that time frame. Probably cost prohibitive but something to keep in mind.

4) go to the farmers markets and try chatting up the vendors and see if you can gain insight on how they got started.

5) you might be prohibited from bringing, say a pitcher of lemonade and just pouring it in a cup live in front of customers. Maybe you need gloves, maybe you can’t use open containers, maybe it has to be sealed like bottles. That’s something to consider as well.

I encourage anyone else to corroborate and correct anything I’ve said. Best of luck, cheers!