By Kalena Reynolds | Staff Writer, Kaitlin Sides | LTVN Managing Editor
Baylor alumna and YouTuber Brooklyn McKnight opened a new soda shop in Woodway alongside her husband, Dakota Blackburn. The shop’s grand opening was on Friday.
LTVN’s Kaitlin Sides tells you about Sip City, and how one-half of the famous YouTubers made it happen.
McKnight originally got her vlogging start on her mom’s YouTube channel, “Cute Girls Hairstyles,” then eventually started her own channel with her twin sister, Bailey. They both majored in entrepreneurship at Baylor and McKnight said she has been implementing those skills towards her new business venture: Sip City.
“So it’s been about a year that we’ve had Waco in the works,” McKnight said. “And obviously, I have a tie to Waco. You know, I graduated from Baylor as well, and the community there’s just awesome.”
The shop carries a variety of beverages including soda, energy drinks, blended drinks and sparkling water — all mixed and blended with different flavors and creams in order to make delicious, handcrafted personalized drinks, she said.
“When we first opened about a year ago, we didn’t have a super great idea about what would be the most popular drinks or flavors, and so a lot of it was just sampling drinks, trying out our own concoctions, making the ratio of syrup to carbonation — to everything, perfect, so that it tasted really great,” McKnight said.
So far, most popular drink combos from the Woodway location include Dr Pepper, McKnight said. One of them, called the “Dallas,” includes Dr Pepper mixed with peach, vanilla and vanilla cream.
The menu also includes a variety of edible cookie dough flavors, including cookies and cream, chocolate chip and confetti.
McKnight said how grateful she was to be able to implement her business in the area where she got her degree, which also enabled her to give back to the community.
“I was able to support other businesses at my time there, and it’s just awesome to be able to see that go first full circle with other students,” McKnight said.
McKnight and her husband plan on opening two more Sip City locations in the next two years, but locations have not been announced yet.
Loveland, Colo., sophomore Ryan Jensen said that the soda shop was very cute and in a nice location.
“It was cute and it was modern,” Jensen said. “The line was super long. It was like way down the street and around the corner.”
Jensen also said that it was inspiring to see a Baylor alumna accomplish this type of entrepreneurial quest, and it felt even more special to see McKnight handing out drinks on the opening day.
“She was actually the one handing out during this out the window, so it’s really fun to actually see her in the environment,” Jensen said. “I think it’s really cool that a Baylor grad was able to accomplish something that big and then bring it back to where it all started.”
