Sophia Racciatti

Sophia Racciatti is the co-founder and owner of OOSO Drinks Co., a Brooklyn-based non-alcoholic beverage company that produces sparkling teas inspired by natural wine.^[1] She co-founded the company in 2024 with Oliver Spring, her partner and now husband, after spending more than seven years in brand strategy and design at Pernod Ricard, one of the world's largest spirits companies.^[14] In June 2025, OOSO was crowned champion of BevNET's New Beverage Showdown 29 at BevNET Live Summer 2025 in New York City, a competition whose past winners include Poppi, Health-Ade, MALK, and Cann.^[1][2]

Racciatti leads marketing strategy, product formulation, and brand identity for OOSO.^[14] The brand's design system, which she developed drawing on the Bauhaus movement and mid-century aesthetics, was featured in Communication Arts.^[6] OOSO's products — sparkling teas formulated with organic teas, adaptogens, and vitamins, sweetened with organic honey — are available through FreshDirect, independent retailers across New York City, and national direct-to-consumer shipping.^[17][16][20]

Before founding OOSO, Racciatti held a bachelor's degree from Binghamton University, where she played Division I women's lacrosse, a master's degree from the S.I. Newhouse School of Public Communications at Syracuse University, and a brand management certificate from Cornell University.^[15][14]

Racciatti grew up in Syracuse, New York.^[14] Her father worked in the wine and spirits industry, and she has described herself as having "grown up in beverage."^[14]

She attended Binghamton University, where she played Division I women's lacrosse as an attack player.^[15] In her senior season in 2016, she started 14 games and recorded 16 goals and 7 assists.^[15] She was named to the Athletic Director Honor Roll for maintaining a GPA of 3.3 or higher.^[15]

Racciatti earned a master's degree in public relations, advertising, and applied communication from the S.I. Newhouse School of Public Communications at Syracuse University, one of the country's most selective communications programs.^[14] In January 2023, she completed a brand management certificate at Cornell University — a credential she pursued shortly before transitioning from corporate beverage work to building OOSO.^[14]

Pernod Ricard (2017–2024)

Racciatti spent more than seven years at Pernod Ricard USA, working across brand strategy, design, and key account management for the company's spirits and wine portfolio.^[14] Her roles included key account manager in Pernod Ricard's New Brand Ventures division, where she managed the portfolio across the company's top 85 on- and off-premise accounts, budgeted corporate funding for brand activation, and planned consumer events aligned with brand strategy.^[14] She later served as graphic brand manager for Del Maguey Single Village Mezcal and Jefferson's Bourbon.^[14]

She also managed the Pernod Ricard wine and champagne portfolio in parts of New England, working with the Southern Glazer's Wine & Spirits sales team and building relationships across on-premise and off-premise distribution channels.^[14] The role gave her direct experience with the mechanics of how premium beverages are positioned, distributed, and sold at scale — knowledge she would later apply to OOSO.^[14]

OOSO Drinks Co. (2024–present)

The idea for OOSO began during the COVID-19 pandemic. Racciatti and her partner Oliver Spring were living in New York City and experiencing what they described as "hangxiety" — anxiety compounded by alcohol consumption.^[16][14] They reduced their drinking and noticed a significant improvement in their mental health, but found few non-alcoholic options that matched the complexity and sophistication of the wines they had been drinking.^[14] A trip to Scandinavia, where the couple tried sparkling tea for the first time, provided the product concept.^[14] When they returned to Brooklyn, they found nothing comparable on the American market.^[14]

What followed was a period of late-night kitchen experiments in their Brooklyn apartment, as the couple iterated on formulations using organic teas, organic honey, adaptogens including ashwagandha, L-theanine, vitamin B12, and vitamin C.^[20][14] Racciatti developed the recipes while still working full-time at Pernod Ricard, spending more than two years on OOSO's formulation and brand identity before launching publicly.^[14] She designed the brand's visual identity herself, drawing on the Bauhaus movement and mid-century design to create packaging that would stand apart from the category's typical health-and-wellness aesthetic.^[6]

OOSO launched on May 30, 2024, through its website and at Big Night, a bottle shop in Greenpoint, Brooklyn.^[14] The founders chose to debut in their own neighborhood, prioritizing community over scale.^[14] Within weeks, the brand expanded to additional New York City retailers including Happier Grocery and Minus Moonshine.^[14] Racciatti ran pop-ups and in-store demos across the city, staying close to consumers to understand how the product was being used — and discovered that customers were drinking OOSO more habitually and in more contexts than the founders had anticipated.^[14]

The company was selected for the SKU Spring accelerator, a CPG-focused startup program, and won the People's Choice Award at the SKU showcase.^[19] OOSO also participated in the NYU Stern Berkley Center for Entrepreneurship accelerator program, through which co-founder Spring (NYU Stern MBA '24) received mentorship and operational support.^[19]

In June 2025, Racciatti pitched OOSO at BevNET Live Summer 2025 in New York City as part of New Beverage Showdown 29, the beverage industry's premier early-stage pitch competition.^[1] OOSO advanced through the semifinal round, beating eleven other emerging brands to reach the finals.^[5][7][3] The judging panel included the global category merchant from Whole Foods and the chief of new revenue streams at Coca-Cola North America.^[1] OOSO was crowned champion, joining an alumni cohort that includes Poppi, Health-Ade, MALK, Cann, and Liquid Death.^[1][2] The win included a $10,000 BevNET advertising package.^[1]

By mid-2025, OOSO was available in 8.4-ounce cans, four-packs, and 750-milliliter bottles across independent retailers in Brooklyn, Newport Beach, California, and Phoenix, Arizona, as well as through FreshDirect, The Zero Proof online, and wholesale via Faire.^[1][17][16] The brand also reached Canada through The Sobr Market.^[16] The company's investors include Wolf Point Capital and the NYU Stern Berkley Center for Entrepreneurship.^[18][19]

In 2026, OOSO expanded its product line with a third flavor, Chamomile Peach Yuzu, which BevNET reviewed favorably.^[8] The brand's design system — described by Communication Arts as positioning OOSO to "modernize beverage consumption and transform social norms around nonalcoholic products" — continued to distinguish the company in a crowded non-alcoholic category.^[6]

OOSO was crowned champion of BevNET's New Beverage Showdown 29 at BevNET Live Summer 2025 in New York City, a competition judged by executives from Whole Foods, Coca-Cola North America, and BevNET.^[1][2] Past champions of the competition include Poppi, Health-Ade, MALK, Cann, and Liquid Death.^[1]

The brand won the People's Choice Award at the SKU Spring accelerator showcase in 2025.^[19] OOSO's packaging and visual identity were featured as a project in Communication Arts, a design industry publication.^[6]

At Binghamton University, Racciatti was named to the Athletic Director Honor Roll for academic achievement while competing in Division I women's lacrosse.^[15]

Racciatti met co-founder Oliver Spring on the dating app Hinge.^[14] The couple became engaged in 2024 and later married; she now also goes by Sophie Spring professionally.^[14] They live in Brooklyn, New York, where they run OOSO as a two-person team.^[1][14]