Skip to main content

"The official drink of a better world."?


As my gradually expanding midriff attests diet drinks never really taste as good to me as the real thing.

Here is an interesting idea from Germany. Bionade is a brewed, non-alchoholic soft drink that has become something of a phenomenon in its home market. It is completely organic - which might explain some of its popularity in the home of the Green political movemnent.

The drink was created in the mid 80s in response to declining beer consumption. A couple of years ago it had a makeover in packaging and flavour extensions which, according to Der Spiegel, transformed the drink "into a must-have with its retro yet enviro-friendly appeal. The flavors—elderberry, lychee, herb, ginger-orange and the new, sporty "forte"—likewise have a cool, "you're drinking what?" sensibility. And the broadly-striped label, bulls-eye cap and 1920s-style font exude sophistication.

The re-launched drink hit the zeitgeist exactly, appealing to health-conscious consumers who were drinking less beer just as they were embracing organic food and drink. Bionade (pronounced "Bee-oh-nah-deh") soon became a firm fixture on supermarket shelves and behind the bar in trendy nightspots."

What is also extremely interesting is the process they have developed to change the characteristics of the sugar used in the fermentation.

"In order to produce a non-alcoholic refreshment drink in a purely organic way “Mother Nature” has to be out-smarted through her own mechanisms. Under purely natural conditions, alcohol is usually generated during the process of fermentation when sugar is involved.
It was only after a long period of research and development that BIONADE’s inventor, the master brewer Dieter Leipold, was successful in converting sugar into gluconic acid in the process of fermentation according to brewing principles. An analogous process can be found in the production of honey by bees. Glucose-oxidase, an enzyme found in bee saliva, plays a central role. The ultimate kernel of the innovation lies in the HOW of the procedure. That is and will remain the secret of BIONADE." (From the Bionade website)


So, unless I am mistaken they make sugar sweeter without using more of it. That has to be a good thing. A quick glance at the Internet shows that there is a noisy backlash against aspatame (Nutrasweet), the sweetener used in Diet Coke etc.

Has anyone tried this stuff - should Red Bull worry?

Comments

  1. Anonymous10:54 pm

    Yes they should worry - the stuff is selling extremely well in Germany, ranking 3rd in overall sales! - they are expanding all over europe and I hear they're coming to australia

    ReplyDelete
  2. JoeGreenz5:41 pm

    Hey Karl, thanks for stopping by.
    I noticed on the company website that there is a distribution network popping up around the world. I wonder if it like beer in that it is better when it is fresh?

    ReplyDelete

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Johnny Bunko competiton

The Great Johnny Bunko Challenge from DHP on Vimeo . There's a young chap in Indiana, one Alec Quig , who has written to me about creating a career based on a polymathic degree, from which he has recently graduated. He's an interesting young man and his concerns about going forward in life are the anxieties we all face at crossroads in our lives when we are forced to make choices. Dan Pink's latest book The Adventures of Johnny Bunko: The Last Career Guide You'll Ever Need might help: "From a New York Times, BusinessWeek, and Washington Post bestselling author comes a first-of-its- kind career guide for a new generation of job seekers.There's never been a career guide like it.the fully illustrated story (ingeniously told in Manga form) of a young Everyman just out of college who lands his first job. Johnny Bunko is new to parachute company Boggs Corp., and he stumbles through his early days as a working stiff until a crisis prompts him to find a new job. St
Post a Comment
Read more and leave a comment

Ze Frank thinks so you don't have to

Ze Frank appeared on my radar when I saw his presentation among the excellent TED Talks videos . This morning I was reading Russell Davies planning blog in which he referred to a clip by Ze Frank - Where do ideas come from. Here's the transcript: "...Hungry Hippo licks Aunt JEmima [sic] writes, "Are you ever gonna break into song again? Are you running out of ideas?" Hungry Hippo licks Aunt JEmima, that's a good question. I run out of ideas every day! Each day I live in mortal fear that I've used up the last idea that'll ever come to me. If you don't wanna run out of ideas the best thing to do is not to execute them. You can tell yourself that you don't have the time or resources to do 'em right. Then they stay around in your head like brain crack. No matter how bad things get, at least you have those good ideas that you'll get to later. Some people get addicted to that brain crack. And the longer they wait, the more they convince themse
1 comment
Read more and leave a comment

Sexist Advertising and stereotypes

Advertising lives in the short-form world. Because mass media is so expensive the 30 second commercial is conventional and because there is so much clutter simplified signals are essential to 'cut through'. One form of communication short-hand used as a default is the stereotype - "A stereotype can be a conventional and oversimplified conception, opinion, or image, based on the assumption that there are attributes that members of the "other group" have in common. Stereotypes are sometimes formed by a previous illusory correlation, a false association between two variables that are loosely correlated if correlated at all. Though generally viewed as negative perceptions, stereotypes may be either positive or negative in tone." In the 1950's and 60's when men dominated advertising stereotypical impressions of women as inferior or subservient were not only commonplace but usual. It was normal to show women as housekeepers, largely because most wer
9 comments
Read more and leave a comment