What's the plan?
The one product in Aus that stood out most of all was the alcoholic ginger beer. It was on tap in virtually every pub in Aus, and for good reason. Fiery, refreshing, delicious and above all, nothing like anything available in the UK.
The other drink, which was a little less mainstream, was alcoholic cloudy lemonade. There was a little more variation in the quality of the lemonade, however if you found a good one you knew about it – absolutely top drawer.
Two classic drinks that are well-known in the UK, but simply aren’t done well or widely available.
So, from around April 2024, we knew our first two products in the UK were going to be an alcoholic ginger beer and cloudy lemonade so we started tinkering around with recipes. We purchased all the paraphernalia and set up an extremely rudimental “lab” in our kitchen. This basically consisted of some weighing scales, a mixing pot, SodaStream, pH tester, pipets, funnels and other bits and bobs that we – naively – thought would be perfect for developing commercial products... with absolutely zero experience.
We tried different methods, combinations and flavours over the course of a few weeks, and ended up with a couple of products that were passable, but nowhere near what we wanted. We knew we had to get food scientists involved to fill the knowledge gap and bring our products to the next level.
By mid-2024, we’d locked down a reputable food scientist to help with our products, with four main aims in mind:
- Reduced sugar content in comparison to competitors. The best-selling ginger beers in Australia and the UK both have over 35 grams in a can (330ml) and bottle, respectively. We don’t want our products to have anywhere near this level of sugar.
- All natural ingredients. This meant no artificial colours, flavours, sweeteners or preservatives.
- No furry mouthfeel. We want to create drinks that are light and sessionable. Not like the one-and-done options available in the UK.
- And lastly, and most importantly, drinks that create a “f*** me that’s good” reaction. We want a product that invokes strong reactions and sparks conversations, leaving a lasting impression purely because of how good the product is. (Didn’t quite phrase it like this in the briefing document, but you get the gist).
Time to get mixin’.
