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With the Lauren De Vine Beverage service, you get a six-pack of Mason jars holding seasonally...

CARMEL >> Lauren De Vine has little need for life's rearview mirror, and she's not keen on crystal balls either. She lives in the now, and her future is written with ellipses, three dots that indicate an unfinished thought, a slight pause, the intentional omission of what lies ahead.
Not long ago De Vine was in Iceland singing for the high-profile psychedelic rock band The Dead Skeletons. She's worked in sales, been the CEO of a cosmetics company, tended bar and consulted for Michelin-starred restaurants (including Murray Circle in Sausalito).
A year ago she left Marin to follow her musician friend Nico Georis to Carmel. Her intention was to stay 90 days while consulting on the beverage program for Barmel, the new watering hole owned by Nico's brother Gabe Georis.
Ninety days turned into multiple months, and the Monterey Peninsula easily won her over. Her inventive cocktails at Barmel were a hit, and that led to an idea that fermented into Lauren De Vine Beverage, "a California beverage company with a refreshed sense of spirit," according to her company tagline.
"Wait for the right time and you spend a lot of time waiting," said De Vine, 32. "If you're open to it an opportunity will find you, and I'm happy to have this current project."
De Vine's idea was to handcraft beverages (elixirs, shrubs and mixers for mocktails, cocktails or sodas) using simple, fresh and organic ingredients. So she started her own CSA-style beverage service in Monterey County.

Emails go out to potential customers on Tuesdays, and she assembles six-packs of Mason jars holding seasonally flavored beverages for pickup on Fridays (last week the flavors were: watermelon, mint, chile and citrus; pineapple, cilantro, jalapeño and smoked salt; and kumquat, rose, geranium, lavender and lemon).
The cost is $30 for six drinks (three flavors) that can be mixed with spirits, soda water or other non-alcoholic additives. She also has an off-menu, quart-sized offering, such as her already-famous bloody Mary mix (heirloom tomatoes, grilled onions and leeks, carrots, garlic, enoki mushrooms, Meyer lemon, horseradish, Sriracha and house-salted anchovies). Last week that option was "The Cure," a coconut water and strawberry shrub ($20).
De Vine has yet to launch a website, so she runs most of her business through her Facebook page at www.facebook.com/LaurenDeVineBeverage, or by phone at 601-5540.
The current plan is to run the service through New Year's Day ("I will be there for hangover support," she says). She hopes to have the retail component up and running by spring of 2015, but of course she wrote those words ending with ellipses.
Her main goal now is "to start a conversation with the community." She craves customer feedback, and will take $5 credit off future orders if the jars are returned with a filled-out comment form.
"We want to hear from you! Our product is about your journeys, your celebration, your enjoyment!" she tells her customers.
What's next for this blonde spitfire?
"I'm embracing the fact that my life will evolve and change, " she said. "There will be shifts in the story for sure, and I'm open to that."
In her email blasts to customers, she openly thanks them for "being among the first to share in this adventure! That will never be forgotten, and always a chapter in our story. As it was written: 'Oh the places you'll go ...'"