Pop Art

Alexis Korman is Zooming from Miami, but unless she’s immersed in some soda-splashed Art Basel installation—entirely possible as the international celebration of boundary-pushing creativity has colored every corner of the sunny south Florida destination—it’s impossible to tell.

Floating above the Canada-born, New Orleans-living entrepreneur’s head in her background are cans emblazoned with the word Mighty Pop. The line of drinks is her latest baby, a sibling to the wildly popular kombuchas of Big Easy, the brand she launched with Austin Sherman out of their New Orleans kitchen a decade ago.

“I had to pick this one for my background, it’s my favorite flavor,” Korman says of the flying Orange Vanilla cans. “It tastes like a dreamsicle—it’s indulgent, but we use agave, and just three grams of sugar. Unlike kombucha, Mighty Pop is not vinegary at all. It’s very accessible.”

Co-developed by Korman and launching in August from Beliv—the Miami-based parent company that purchased Big Easy in 2021—Korman calls Mighty Pop the next wave in wellness drinks for its flavorful combination of pre-, pro-, and postbiotics. Even as Big Easy kombuchas and shots rolled out in United Supermarkets across Texas for the first time just a week before talking with Louisiana Life in May, Korman confides that this innovative new product feels like her true next step as a creative in the beverage space.

Growing up in Calgary—she calls it a “cold Dallas, lots of farmland and oil”—writing was always Korman’s artistic outlet. “It felt like escaping into another world,” says the creative, now serving as VP of marketing for Big Easy, while bringing new ideas to market for Beliv. “It was the key to my imagination.”

After graduating from Pitzer College in Claremont, California, and earning a graduate degree in English from Columbia in New York City, Korman faced an all-too-common writer’s dilemma: turning her way with words into a sustainable career.

“I realized I should get a beat that would also feed me and pay some bills at the same time,” she recalls.

Writing food and beverage reviews for USA Today and Wine Enthusiast not only did those things, it also taught her the intricacies of the craft of beverage-making, a keen palate for flavor profiles, and an unwavering appreciation of the art of fermentation.

So when she and Sherman began experimenting with their own version of her favorite drink for gut-health, Korman was uniquely-prepared to make a quality kombucha.

Jazz Juice, their first concoction, remains a light and intricate combination of gently fermented tea with pineapple and elderflower, and in 2014 it was the first hint of the creativity to come.

“It’s my beverage karma, I guess, reviewing other people’s drinks. I never imagined I’d be so firmly on the other side of it,” Korman admits. “But with Big Easy, it happened so naturally. I do really feel that God guided the process because from the very beginning it felt like there was some momentum to it.”

That forward progress carried Big Easy from pop-ups and farmers’ markets—“and camping out at supermarkets and on our porch asking everyone from friends and neighbors to the postman to give feedback,” she says—to a brewery operated by 50 local employees and a line of beverages carried throughout the Southeast from Louisiana to Virginia by the time Beliv bought the brand in 2021.

“People have your back here and show enthusiasm for you in Louisiana in a way that is hard to find in New York,” Korman says. “People understand that it’s ‘big easy from New Orleans,’ but it’s also taking on these other meanings. ‘Big’ like big benefits. ‘Easy’ like easy drinking. Now it’s got a life of its own.”

Even as Big Easy grew, Korman never specifically thought of herself as an entrepreneur. And yet her journey through freelance writing was fundamentally entrepreneurial—managing her own time, pursuing her own passions, and being her own boss.

Now she carries that independent spirit with her as Big Easy’s reach expands, and she develops new products like Mighty Pop.

“Once you start thinking that way, and it starts clicking, it’s an incredible feeling,” Korman says. “I’ll probably never stop inventing things now.”

Q&A

When not working, what are some places you like to go for food, drinks, and fun? Being vegan, I love supporting the growing plant-based scene in Nola whenever I can. Small Mart is a bodega-style hidden gem for Indian fare. Sweet Soulfood is another spot on Broad Street that has managed to put a plant twist on stick-to-your-ribs classics. I like looking for the Tanjarine Kitchen food truck, too, because their Mandela Burger has some serious African spice. For a drink, I love Pal’s or Twelve Mile Limit. The martinis at the new Four Seasons bar are next level, too.

Big Easy is known for recruiting from under-employed populations in New Orleans. Why was that important to you? New Orleans is a city with so much heart. Businesses of any size can directly impact the greater community by changing their mindset. When STRIVE ran its workforce readiness program, we as a company learned so much about how trauma, let’s say from Katrina or gun violence, as examples, had made it unsustainable for some to maintain regular work. Big Easy is blessed to still have several graduates of the STRIVE program as a part of our family, and that brings a smile to my face.