Merrilee Kick is Creating a Big Buzz
How an ex-Plano high school teacher built a quirky libations brand into a $70 million global enterprise.
By Brandon J. Call
Published in
D CEO
December
2020
Photography by Sean Berry | The Nest Images Courtesy of BuzzBallz/Southern Champion
On a hot Texas afternoon in the mid-2000s, then-Plano West Senior High School teacher Merrilee Kick was sitting by her pool grading papers when she had a hankering for an alcoholic beverage. How cool would it be, she thought, to sip a cocktail out of a plastic container so she wouldn’t have to worry about breaking a glass bottle? Kick didn’t want to miss out on any pool time, either, so the concoction needed to come pre-mixed and ready-to-drink. She also wanted a beverage that wouldn’t fill her up or make her feel bloated and, most important, it needed to be strong enough to get her buzzed.