HEALTHY OPTIONS: Fresh ideas for health-conscious patrons

Fresh ideas for health-conscious patrons

As the healthier-for-you segment goes from strength to strength, we look at a couple of new additions to the line-up.

AS DEMAND continues to expand and evolve in the healthy beverages space, so too do the beverages on offer for pub patrons seeking out better-for-you tipples that don’t sacrifice flavour or festivity.

With sales of no and low-alcohol beer, wine and spirits soaring, and low in sugar options such as hard seltzer products going from strength to strength, it’s clear there’s still plenty of room for innovation within the space.

Lyres, for instance, continues to build on its existing range of non-alcoholic spirits, RTDs and sparkling wine.

Lyres Agave Blanco and Agave Reserva tap into the margarita trend.

Combining the margarita and mocktail trends, the company has added two new Agave alternatives to the line-up – an Agave Blanco and Agave Reserva.

“An essential ingredient to the Margarita, the Lyre’s Agave range contains natural essences, extracts, and distillates that match the aromas, tastes, and textures you find within their alcoholic counterparts,” Lyres says.

“Lyre’s Agave Blanco and Agave Reserva are a meticulously crafted homage to tequila classics with a mélange of flavours, evoking notes of citrus, peppers, pine, spices, and oak.”

Gut health opportunity

Another new arrival on the better-foryou scene is Saint & Sinner, a bottled hard kombucha that’s brewed locally and promises “good times without the guilt”. This product is low in sugar, and is gluten and preservative free, organic and has only 77 calories. It was born out of a Wollongong family’s desire to create something that would make people feel good drinking it – both during and after.

For its makers Riley, Linda, and Peter Lord, their interest in kombucha began after Linda suffered a health crisis that forced her to focus on her gut health and cut back on sugar.

“The more we researched the market, the more we were convinced there was a need for this kind of product,” Riley Lord says. “We were determined to create something which people could feel good about drinking.”

According to the Lords, in contrast to Saint & Sinner, many of the RTDs on the market contain sugar and preservatives. In addition, Saint & Sinner contains good bacteria to aid gut health.

Being an alcoholic beverage with one standard drink per bottle, however, they are careful not to position it purely as a health product. “It’s alcohol on its best behaviour,” Riley says.

Available in three flavours – watermelon, pine-lime coconut and passionfruit – Saint & Sinner uses a small batch fermentation process.

Saint & Sinner hard kombucha was created to aid gut health.

The Lords say every bottle is ethically and sustainably created, and the amber glass it’s packaged in helps to maintain the kombucha’s integrity.

“We knew we could make a great tasting kombucha, as we’ve been doing so for years, so we just had to turn it into something commercial,” Riley says.

With a background in gut health and animal supplements rather than beverages, the family worked with professional microbiologists to come up with a recipe, and once perfected, they sought out a contract manufacturer.

The company has to date focused on southern metropolitan Sydney and the NSW south coast, with Ryan’s Hotel, Thirroul and Figtree Sports Club among the venues that already stock the product.

After finding success in the local area with Saint & Sinner, the company is now preparing for nationwide distribution.