Pop pop, fizz fizz, this is where the innovation is

Moretown—The Pop Soda facilities in the Moretown Commercial Park look a lot more like a beer brewery than a Coke factory.

There’s a pretty good reason for that. Pop Soda is a hand-crafted microsoda—that’s micro as in microbrew, not mini company. The lightly sweet and pastel colored Lemon Lavender with Ginger, Mint Lime and Citrus Hibiscus sodas are brewed and force-carbonated in vats that were once the equipment used to brew Andrew’s Brewing Co. of Maine’s microbrews.

The result of brewing soda like beer is a drink that’s highly carbonated, but doesn’t sting when it goes down. That, combined with the all natural ingredients Lara Lonon and Jim Robison infuse into Pop Soda, is making the drink an increasingly popular choice at food stores and the Montpelier Farmer’s Market.

It’s joining WaNu of Chittenden County and Vermont Sweetwater of Poultney in the Vermont microsoda community.

Husband and wife team Robison, 34, and Lonon, 31, began selling lavender-ginger lemonade from their traveling kitchen, the Munchbox, at festivals and other places in Vermont. The drink was a hit, and the couple began experimenting with carbonating the lemonade about three years ago. Soon they were trying all different flavors, and after a party with friends, narrowed it down to the three that are on shelves in Vermont today.

In 2003, the couple sold their mobile kitchen and used the proceeds to set up a brewery in the Moretown Commercial Park, located at the junction of routes 2 and 100. They bought used equipment from Andrew’s Brewing Co., and set up just like a seven-barrel brewery.

In the building, which was once the administrative offices for Ben & Jerry’s, and then a liquor distillery, the couple set up four 200-gallon vats for brewing, though they are only using three right now. The ingredients go through a roller coaster of boiling, infusing, chilling and forced carbonation before the product is able to be bottled. While the ingredients come from all over the place (the hibiscus is from Mexico) the honey in the soda comes from French Hill Apiaries in St. Albans.

The business uses a machine for bottling, which requires quite a bit of human help to run. The three hand-label each of the thousands of bottles they distribute each month. A labeler is definitely on the company wish-list.

“Our next step is to buy a labeler because we hand-label all of our bottles,” Robison said. “It’s the last thing to get automated. We need to buy a faster bottle filler. Then we’ll be ok for a little while.”

Over the course of its young history, other soda brewers and beer brewers have been extremely helpful to the Pop Soda couple, Lonon said.

Pop Soda is distributed by a vendor, North Country Natural of Brattleboro, and Robison also delivers the soda in four-packs to stores. The soda is being distributed in many places in Vermont as well as western Massachusetts and southern New Hampshire.

“A batch size is seven barrels,” Robison said. “We have a seven-barrel brewery, which is a little over 200galllons. Right now, we’re doing between one and two batches a week. When we first started, before we got into this equipment, we were doing basically one barrel batches, brewing like 40 gallon batches.”

It’s just the couple, with help from Lonon’s brother, who produce all the soda. They work long days, and in a good solid day they can bottle 200 gallons, which is 80 cases of Soda. Also, they fill quarter kegs (five gallons) for weddings. Those are selling well, at $30 plus a deposit for the tap.

Pop Soda sells for a little more than $5 for a four pack. At Healthy Living in Burlington, the pop goes for $5.19 a four pack, and at Hunger Mountain Co-op, it’s $5.59. Individually, each 12-ounce bottle sells for $1.39.

The three flavors sell equally as well, with Mint Lime doing better in the summer than it does in the winter. Citrus Hibiscus is popular with kids.

The real money is made on draught sales, according to Robison, because money isn’t wasted on bottles and labeling. Lonon and Robison sell the three flavors at the Capital City Farmer’s Market in Montpelier every week during the summer. Initially, doing that was a way to introduce the soda to customers. But it’s turned out to be lucrative.

“It’s interesting, we used to sell a lot more four-packs at the farmers’ market, and this year, we sell consistently a lot of draft soda,” Robison said.

The couple is trying to sell enough of the soda to make a living, but wants to remain small enough that they keep the soda’s quality high. That’s meant having to sell a little more than they originally intended. Lonon and Robison are working on how they’ll finance the next equipment upgrades.

“Now it’s time to go the bank or seek investors,” Lonon said.

Working for themselves allows the couple to bring their dogs to work, and make their own hours. But Lonon says their friends describe them as slaves to the company, though she says they’re really enjoying it, and being in the brewing business allows for a creative outlet (Robison designed the company’s funky labels). In their free time—which is limited—the two enjoy hiking and running with their two dogs. They live in Duxbury.

No root beer here

While most beer brewers turned soda brewers opt for root beers and birch beer, because it is similar to the beer brewing process, Robison and Lonon opted for the off-the-beaten-path citrus flavors to offer something different to thirsty consumers (and the acidity of the citrus helps prevent the soda from going bad). There’s plenty of root beer and birch beer out there, they thought.

Cassandra Hayward, who is in charge of investor and consumer relations for Jones Soda of Seattle, Wash., said it is difficult to find figures on how many “pop shop” soda companies start up every year. But anecdotally, she says people in the industry say for every 100 new beverages each year, 99 fail. It’s tough to get small companies’ drinks on shelf space when it means competing with giants like Coca-Cola and Pepsi. Jones Soda was one of the lucky ones—last year it sold 2.25 million cases of 12-ounce bottles, according to its Securities and Exchange Commission filings.

“New age” drinks, as they are called in the beverage industry, including premium soda like Pop Soda, sparkling water, sports beverages, regular and enhanced teas, fruit drinks, dairy drinks and energy drinks, was more than a $16 billion industry in the United States last year, according to Hayward. And consumer interest in specialty and gourmet soda is growing, Hayward said. Carbonated soft drinks, including Coke, Pepsi and Dr. Pepper, sold more than 10 billion cases in 2004, according to the Beverage Marketing Corp., and are more than a $45 billion a year industry.

Steph Rieke, of Nutty Steph’s Granola, said she’s seen a growth spurt in specialty soda producers around the country, but not yet in Vermont. She said, however, that Pop Soda, along with Sweetwater and the handful of other Vermont sodas may help introduce Vermonters to soda alternatives.

“I think they’re doing it really well, they’re doing it right,” said Rieke, who is on the board of Vermont Specialty Foods Association, an organization that supports and promotes more than 100 specialty food producers in the state. “They have a beautiful label, an incredible product, and it’s genuinely natural. I think they’ve done it right. I think when you do it right, you have a good product, and it’s from Vermont, you almost can’t go wrong.”