Teen entrepreneur founds Stemistry, a flower bar and coffee lab

Dylan Capshaw, a Time Magazine ‘Kid of the Year’ Nominee, has now opened two locations of the business he founded called “Stemistry.” It’s a reimagined flower bar and coffee lab.

While in chemistry class in elementary school, Capshaw came up with the name, a combination of stems, flowers and coffee. Capshaw just opened his second shop on March 26.

At Stemistry, customers design their own arrangements using a creative build-your-own bouquet bar. There, guests choose their flowers, pay by the stem and then move to an easy design table where free supplies are available to craft a floral arrangement. There are also affordable, premade bouquets. They source flowers from local distributors. A customer can either pay by the bouquet or by individual flowers, which is unlike many floral shops, Capshaw said.

The coffee lab embraces the floral backbone of the shop by infusing flowers like rose, lavender and sunflower into its drinks. The bestseller is the rose latte.

“I came up with the whole menu sitting in class. Basically, we take floral extracts, and we infuse them into our drinks. So it’s like a basic latte, but we add in that hint of flower so it tastes just like it smells. It’s interesting having the floral hint mixed with your morning coffee,” Capshaw said.

Capshaw started an online flower shop back in 2020 during COVID, and after growing for two years using flowers from his own backyard, he wanted to open a coffee shop and combine the two ideas. He has always wanted to be an entrepreneur.

“As far back as I can remember, I was starting little businesses here and there, seeing what could make me money and what I enjoyed doing,” Capshaw said.

Stemistry is also offering private classes, including private corporate events, birthday parties and bachelor parties. People can rent out the store after hours, and there will be a florist on staff to teach people how to make their own arrangements, Capshaw said.