Viridescence is a vibe.
When I first saw this word, I was looking for inspiration, a description of what I was putting out into the world.
Viridescence is the emergence into a state of being verdant and lush.
My Candy
This candy is unlike anything on the market. We use ingredients that are foraged, fermented, uncommon in any part of the world, or special cultivars of familiar plants. All our flavorings are either distilled, extracted or specially compounded in labs. No cheap “flavor oils”, no bulk-bin dry herbs. I do the groundwork myself to learn the chemistry and document the safety and edibility of ingredients not normally used in commercial products. Through food science, a background in pastry work, and a rare form of epilepsy that helps me dream up these concoctions, I create entire stories in sugar form. These are candies that taste like rain on hot pavement, ice cream cones at the beach, the first chill of fall blowing through open windows, fizzy cocktails, pickled fruits and after-dinner drinks.
My story
This business began its development in early 2022. At the time, I'd suffered an epilepsy-related injury and was working on rehabilitation. This originally happened during my top surgery, normally a celebratory event for a trans person. One thing I could do really well was put a pot of sugar on the stove and let years of muscle memory take over in creating hard candies, taffy, gumdrops and sugar geodes. I did this over and over for a year. At the same time, I was very suddenly given sole custody of my two boys, one of whom has special needs, and now cover 100% of their care. I needed a business model where I could work any moment I could, and laser-focus my rehab toward building business skills. I worked every logistical angle to ensure that the business funded itself through to my USDA licensing day, and my first round of commercial orders. Some of you might remember me doing those gift boxes to help my startup costs, and later the lollipop bags!! Since then I’ve gone through some massive learning curves, trials and errors, so much community support, and watched this business grow into the weird science experiment it is today.