Beverage makers go for a not too carbonated drink that’s like a ‘non-alcoholic digestif’
Joe Hyatt and his partners have worked hard producing their new canned beverage, and according to Hyatt one of its subtler selling points is that it’s not explosive.
Hyatt said that although Elders Sparkling Probiotic Drink is carbonated, it’s not too carbonated. “It’s very lightly carbonated,” he said. “If you tip the can over, or shake it a little bit, it’s not going to explode on you. The carbonation is actually teed in perfectly.”
Elders is an apple cider vinegar-based beverage developed by Hyatt and his partners Richard Jacob, Jewel Chérubin and Rayna Farquharson, all Nashua residents. It combines apple cider vinegar, cane sugar, lemon and ginger.
“Our goal,” Hyatt said, “has been to bring drinks to the market that actually taste good and are good for you and are clean. We want it to be as little processed as possible. So if you look at the ingredients, we only use juice that is not from concentrate. That’s what we’re going to strive to do. You know, it’s hard because it’s not easy to find that. We’re also certified organic to try to make sure that we can give people the best product that they can get.”
Jewel Chérubin said she was very deliberate when she designed Elders’ label to include illustrations of an apple, a lemon, some ginger and a sugarcane. “Basically,” she said, “what you see is what you sip.”
“We wanted to make sure that when someone saw the drink,” Hyatt said, “they could see it, and hopefully some subconscious part of them will go, ‘Oh! I know those ingredients.’ There’s no ‘natural flavors,’ like a lot of popular drinks have, because that’s not real. That’s processed, and that’s not what we want to do.”
“There’s no high-fructose corn syrup,” Rich Jabob added, “only organic cane sugar, but only four grams of it. There’s no concentrate, just pure juice. There’s no preservatives, and our goal is to use the best ingredients possible.”
Hyatt said much of the inspiration for Elders came from health concerns of members of his family.
“For millennia,” he said, “apple cider vinegar has been holistically used for people’s general well-being. There really wasn’t anything on the market that was a true apple cider vinegar drink. There are a few that try to act like it but …. Anyway, I looked at our team and I said, ‘Guys, we can make this and we can make it better.’ And then a few months later we’re canned and hitting the market.”
In an ideal world, Jacob said, all the ingredients would be locally sourced.
“But it’s tough to find lemons that grow in New Hampshire,” he said. New Hampshire can’t successfully grow cane sugar; that’s asking a lot.” Given global climate change, though, he added, you never know. “And then when that happens, we’ll find a local source.”
But, Hyatt added, it’s important to the team that the product is made locally.
“That’s where the label comes in,” he said. It says ‘Made in New England’ and that’s us making sure we support local businesses. We bring everything we can right here. We’re not getting it produced in Illinois and then shipped here, which could even be cheaper. We want to make sure that we’re supporting the communities we’re in.”
“This is like a non-alcoholic digestif,” Jacob explained. “In other parts of the world, digestifs are a big thing. At the end of a meal, Italians have limoncello; the French have génépi, and all that stuff.”
“And that’s really funny,” Hyatt added, “because my Middle Eastern family, they look at this and when they eat this or drink this they go, ‘This is a digestif.’”
Which brings the conversation back to carbonation.
“I have little cousins who love this,” Hyatt said, “and sometimes people, especially kids, don’t love overly bubbly stuff. This is already kind of a niche product. We wanted to ensure that we’re not doubling down by making it overly bubbly. If someone says, ‘Oh, I don’t like bubbly drinks,’ we can say, ‘Well, here you go.’ It’s a perfect balance.”
Elders Sparkling Probiotic Drink
Elders Sparkling Probiotic Drink is available in select locations across New England and in all walk-in locations of Pressed Café.
Featured photo: Courtesy photo.
