Mixologist Danielle Sweatman is busy on most days behind the bar she owns with her husband Brent. On Mondays, however, she is guaranteed to be in the kitchen.
Together, the duo behind Sweatman’s Garden sodary, named Best Non-Alcoholic Bar of 2025 by Charleston City Paper, spend the start of every week dreaming up four new seasonal soda flavors to feature on an ever-changing menu. Whether it’s a summery peaches-and-cream lemonade or cozy cranberry orange soda with rosemary, the winners are then hand-crafted and batched in a 7-gallon pony keg on Tuesday and on tap by Wednesday.
But this month, the Sweatmans are adding a new task to their well-oiled weekly soda operation: They’re bottling fresh batches of their best-selling tonics and sodas to ship across the East Coast.
Fresh sodas on your doorstep
Sweatman’s Garden is set to unveil an online retail store at the end of September so customers can get its most popular non-alcoholic drink products. The new venture will run out of its same cozy brick-and-mortar space in the South Windermere Shopping Center in West Ashley.
“We do everything as fresh as we can,” Danielle said. “That means we make everything in-house that we will serve each week, and the same will go for what we ship. We feature a lot of seasonal and all-natural ingredients so we want our products to taste as fresh as possible.”
A mix of permanent menu items will be available to order this fall, including Sweatman’s original ginger beer, tonic, ginger beer mule, lime cream soda and habanero fresca soda. Down the road, Sweatman said she plans to expand offerings with fun items like surprise seasonal soda packs featuring rotating flavors for fans of her unique weekly specials.
And for fans of the funky-yet-cozy ambiance of Sweatman’s Garden cocktail lounge? Rest assured the experience of sipping Sweatman’s soda at home will not disappoint. The packaging will have a similar vintage vibe and complement the refillable growlers and growlettes already on sale at the sodary for customers who want to bring beverages home in eco-friendly style.
“Everything I do has to be aesthetic,” she said, the creative mastermind behind the bar’s unique design which features everything from disco balls to velvet couches. “We’ll be packaging everything in glass swing-top bottles with screen-printed logos. These are not single-use, but rather items people can use beyond pouring their soda out of which is important to me.”
Building on brand buzz
Sodas will ship only to locations along the East Coast to start, but don’t be surprised to see Sweatman’s products nationwide soon. While Sweatman’s Garden, which opened in 2023, is still relatively new to Charleston, the brand’s larger fanbase is anything but — thanks to multiple longstanding partnerships with restaurants around town.
The Obstinate Daughter’s cocktail list includes two signature drinks starring Sweatman’s house-made sodas. And at The Rarebit, where Brent ran the bar in 2015, Sweatman’s ginger beer is still a beloved menu staple for locals and Charleston visitors.
“The inspiration to launch a store really came from emails I get every week asking how to order,” he said. “Some people write to say they had our ginger beer at The Rarebit six years ago, and they need to order it because they just found out we have a brick-and-mortar spot.”
Crafting cocktails, community
As word continues to spread about Sweatman’s products, so too does the buzz about Sweatman’s Garden here in the Holy City. On the heels of the bar’s second anniversary last month, Sweatman said she has seen an uptick in its popularity among locals.
“We started as a bar more for sober people and sober-curious people,” Sweatman said. “But now that people have found out that we do all kinds of amazing Delta-9 and alcoholic cocktails with our sodas also, we are getting more people who simply love delicious, high-quality drinks.”
Sweatman’s Garden continues to expand the ways to engage the community, too. Think themed Thursday nights featuring fun drink specials and even monthly Full Moon parties featuring a roster of female-owned small businesses so patrons can shop while they sip.
“The events started out as things that I would like to go to,” Sweatman said. “But they’ve now formed this awesome community for local vendors to come together as well as. My goal is to always be a really inclusive space, and I’m so happy that is coming to fruition.”
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