Today we’d like to introduce you to Phoebe Lyman.
Alright, so thank you so much for sharing your story and insight with our readers. To kick things off, can you tell us a bit about how you got started?
I’m Phoebe Lyman. I’m a fertility and gut health massage therapist, and owner of Casc Tonics, a new digestive bitters brand.
As a longtime manual therapist specializing in digestive and reproductive health, I’ve spent years witnessing the profound connection between how we eat and how we feel. In my Los Angeles practice, clients would often arrive with persistent digestive complaints like bloating, sluggish digestion, reflux, constipation. So many people struggle to find relief even after trying every diet and supplement under the sun.
Over time, I noticed a pattern: so many of these issues weren’t just about what people were eating, but how their bodies were preparing to digest in the first place.
That realization inspired me to create Casc Tonics, a modern herbal wellness company reintroducing the power of bitter flavors into daily life. Our flagship product, The Daily Bitter, is an herbal tincture designed to gently encourage your body’s innate digestive reflexes. Bitter foods and herbs have been woven into human cuisine for thousands of years. But today, the Standard American Diet and ultra-processed foods have all but erased bitterness from our palates, leaving us with digestion that often feels flat and sluggish.
This is where the taste of bitterness comes in. When bitter compounds meet receptors on your tongue, they signal your digestive organs to wake up. Your stomach starts producing acid, your liver and gallbladder release bile, and your pancreas secretes enzyme. The Daily Bitter blends herbs like wormwood, dandelion root, and cardamom, all ancestrally-used plants long celebrated for their digestive benefits.
For me, creating Casc Tonics was an extension of my work as a gut health practitioner and massage therapist. I wanted to offer a simple, effective tool that empowers people to feel confident in their digestion and more connected to their bodies, that would be gentle and supportive of the work we were doing directly with their tissues through the manual therapy.
Alright, so let’s dig a little deeper into the story – has it been an easy path overall and if not, what were the challenges you’ve had to overcome?
Building a small business is never easy, and its especially challenging when you’re diving into a business you’ve never done before. For years, I’ve been working as a manual therapist, which is a small, mostly word-of-mouth-based business. Growing my scope of work and interest into a product company from a service-based company has been like learning a new language. It hasn’t been a ‘struggle’ per se, but it has been a steep learning curve of product development, compliance, supply chain logistics, and mostly, marketing! One of the things that has helped me along the way is not putting so much pressure on the business to “succeed” or grow at a rapid rate. This is a passion project, a new venture for me. Having spaciousness around its growth and success has made the process of starting a new business a lot more relaxing and fun.
As you know, we’re big fans of Casc Tonics . For our readers who might not be as familiar what can you tell them about the brand?
[I included a lot of this stuff in an earlier question]
The mission of my company is to reintroduce bitter flavors into people’s daily routines as a simple way to improve their gut health. So many people these days are dealing with chronic, daily, low-grade gut issues like bloating, indigestion, heartburn, and constipation to the point where they normalize the symptoms (even though they’re uncomfortable!) This is where our digestive bitters shine- they help stimulate your *natural* digestive functions, which makes them different from other supplements. Its less about what the herbs themselves do in the body, and more about the processes that they start (like a lock and key!) We carefully selected the herbs in the formula to balance flavor with potency. Each herb is considered a ‘bitter herb’, but some are more bitter than others. We are proud that our formula has an intriguing, floral and herbaceous flavor that keeps you coming back for more, while still being extremely effective.
Can you talk to us about how you think about risk?
I think people looking at my business and life decisions from the outside might think they’re risky. I quit a very steady 9-5 job to be a massage therapist, and now I am investing a good chunk of time, money, and effort into an e-commerce brand (in the flooded supplement space, at that!)
But it doesn’t feel like risk to me. And that is because I am so confident in two things. One: That my businesses are truly serving a need that people have. From being an abdominal massage therapist for so many years, I got the opportunity to speak in detail about my client’s digestive health journeys- what worked for them, what didn’t, what their struggles were, and what solutions they were seeking. So when you feel confident that your solution *really* will help people, it doesn’t feel as risky. Two: I truly believe that risk gets mitigated with consistency and time. I feel so confident in the Daily Bitter, that I know all I need to do to make this company succeed is simply to continue the work. As long as I don’t give up, then the risk of starting a business feels irrelevant.
Pricing:
- Daily Bitter: $55
- [would be happy to create a discount for your readers if that’s something you’re open to!]
Contact Info:
- Website: https://www.casctonics.com
- Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/casctonics/
- Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/casctonics
Image Credits
Elif Sanem Karakoc (for all photos)
