Holiday baking has a way of drawing folks in, regardless of skill level. The person who can pipe a perfect rosette and the person who's never cracked an egg both end up in the kitchen this time of year, pulled by the same impulse to make something that smells like cinnamon and butter.
Portland Syrups started in 2012 when Chris Onstad and Dan McLaughlin got tired of what they found on store shelves. The drink mixers available were too sweet, full of artificial ingredients, and packaged in ways that created waste they didn't want to contribute to. So they started brewing syrups in their kitchen.
Every November, kitchens across the country face the same challenge. A single meal requires orchestrating multiple dishes, timing an enormous bird, and feeding a crowd. The cooks who pull it off smoothly share one trait: they started early.
