Craft soda makers, like craft brewers, improve upon the mass-produced product by utilizing high-quality, ingredients using carefully controlled methods.  The outcome is a better-tasting alternative to big brand sodas.  This non-alcoholic relative of craft beer is built on the same values—sustainability, local sourcing, natural and often organic ingredients with a back story.  “People like the local connection, something that they can tie to,” says Steve Cole, a Sales Manager for Atlas Distributing.  It is especially appealing to the young millennial consumers, whose preferences for artisanal foods and beverages continue to lead the way in the restaurant business.

Aside from the fact that craft sodas venture far away from using high fructose corn syrup and other sweeteners, using seasonal ingredients is another advantage to crafting soda.  Blood oranges or pomegranate in January, Watermelon in July, or pears in October make great additions, but why stop there?  Kip Barnes, of LA Ale Works, enjoys the culinary aspect of soda making, and states that “soda…is a lot more flavor balancing” than making beer.  It can be flavored with everything from tea to fruit to spices, and are not terribly sweet but rather refreshing and quench the thirst.  Kip started to craft sodas for his friends and relatives that didn’t or couldn’t drink and so couldn’t enjoy his homebrew beer.  Right away he was hooked by the creative options that making soda offered him.

Considering the higher cost of craft soda, how then can restaurants and bars use them to their advantage?  With consumers constantly looking for things that seem like specialties—innovative concoctions you can’t get everywhere—craft sodas resonate among health-conscious consumers as a more natural option to traditional sodas.  They can feed those who are abstaining from alcohol for whatever reason, from pregnancy to breast feeding, from health matters to fitness matters.  And it can also serve as a healthier alternative for children whose parents want a change from the unhealthy versions we have grown accustomed to.  Restaurant owners who base their brand on natural ingredients now have the ability to match their beverages with their mission statements.  According to Maeve Webster, director at food industry market research firm Datassential, “Craft sodas represent a huge opportunity for quick-serve operators right now…You can take a familiar menu item, soda, and offer a heightened experience—yours is fresher, original, more flavorful—and you have something your competitors don’t.”  Bars can also capitalize by integrating craft sodas into their alcohol programs; specialty sodas created in-house are a great base for signature cocktails!

While craft soda brewers are quick to point out their adversity to high fructose corn syrup and other synthetic ingredients, there is still a hurdle they must overcome if the trend is to grab hold and carry over into the future:  there is still sugar in the sodas, and sugar equals calories.  With the continuing rise of obesity across the nation, it is a factor that could potentially hold back the industry.  For now, it seems to be somewhat offset by consumers who are opting for craft soda over other calorie-laden beverages such as beer, wine, or cocktails, and by young parents who want healthier options for their children.  Whether the fad hangs on in the future remains to be seen, but at the moment craft soda seems to hold a lot of promise.

I, for one, am looking forward to some new flavor options to try, from simple and enticing to wacky and fascinating.  Have you had craft soda?  What flavors have you tried, or do you want to try?  Do you think the craze will remain in the future?

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