This story was written by a junior journalist. Please refer to byline for author's name.
By Caitlyn Demers
For most people, baking, cooking and preparing food come as a task they are anything but interested in. For its costly ingredients and complexity, it's enough to make someone say no. However, Sage Torres, an upcoming graduate, believes differently.
Derived from her cousin's candy business, Torres created “Sage's Sweet Heat”. Sage's Sweet Heat is a homemade business where she creates a variety of sweet treats, such as dulce picante, and gummy candy in a candy mixture. For a year, Torres has kept this up and plans to keep it ongoing.
“It's just me maintaining my business,” Torres said. “I buy all of the supplies and manage everything myself.”
Starting up didn’t come easily for her, however. Torres struggled with the pressure of maintaining upkeep and the looming presence of graduation. She mediates this stress with occasional intervals of rest.
“I thought I wouldn’t make any business, so I wanted to give up plenty of times,” Torres said. “Plus the stress of graduation, so I take breaks every so often.”
Since she works solo, Torres also deals with buying her own product and supplies. Being unemployed at the time meant that she wasn’t able to buy in bulk. Splurging was a luxury she didn’t have.
“I didn’t have a job when I started my business, and my parents don’t make enough to splurge on a bunch of candy, so I had to buy stuff in little increments,” Torres said.
In her time at Brewer, Torres found Mr. Gardener, who she says has been her sweetest teacher as of late. Mr. Gardner had been a reliable teacher since the beginning, and pushed her in the right direction.
“My favorite teacher, Mr. Gardner, has taught me since day one,” Torres said. “Even with my complaining, you can tell he still cares.”
Due to focusing on her academics, Sage had been taking minor breaks. Because of this, she didn’t have the time to push her business out there. Even with this setback, she doesn’t plan on giving up.
“I wanted to focus on getting my GPA up,” Torres said. “ So I’ve only kept to Instagram but I plan to post more to get the word back out there.”
Torres is motivated by her parents, she wants to help them out in return for all they’ve done for her.
“Any money I get from this business goes to my parents to help pay out bills,” Torres said.
As of now, Torres plans on becoming a flight attendant after graduation. Sage's Sweet Heat would hopefully remain on the side while she plans out her future, one tasty delight at a time.