ZEVIA – Natural Diet Soda

ZEVIA Pictured in Wall Street Journal

Once again, we’ve scored a review of one of our great ZEVIA flavors: the Root Beer!  Of many sampled root beers, ZEVIA was one of only four chosen for review in the Wall Street Journal – and a sweet picture with our root beer colleagues to boot!   The  refreshing kick of our root beer contains no high fructose corn syrup, no sugar and NO calories!  What we do have is a root beer kids especially and root beer lovers particularly have been raving about: the root beer kick with a touch of natural ginger. Continue to Chill and Enjoy – and grab a root beer at Whole Foods!

- Jessica

Almost daily, people are writing positive reviews of ZEVIA on blogs. Today, for example, the Healthy Drink Reviews blog rated ZEVIA Cola a 5 out of 5 explaining: “I crack open the blue-and-red can, and am met with a spot-on Coca-Cola scent. As I take a drink, I taste an immediate, bold cola nut flavor with some nice citrus-y overtones. Wow. I cannot even detect a trace of the stevia or erythritol sweeteners, they blend flawlessly into the cola flavor. This does not taste like a diet drink . . . Now Coke is going to have a serious run for its money. You nailed this one, Zevia.”

The indulging my a.d.d. blog is “dedicated to all things shiny, impulsive, visceral, luscious and tempting”. The author wrote about her “Obsession of the Moment . . . an AH-MAZ-ING discovery: Zevia Soda”. A domestic diva wrote “Well, how ever Zevia has done it, they have done a work of art with their sodas” and the Vegan Is Sexy blog covered the “The yummy Zevia sodas”.

We are grateful for all of your online reviews, and for you telling your friends about ZEVIA. We are so proud of the first zero calorie natural soda, and excited you are spreading the word.

-Derek

Spring means different things to different people, and here in Seattle, one sure sign of spring is OPENING DAY! ZEVIA is the proud sponsor of the Mercer Island Little League Rookies team, the ROCKIES! There is lots of soda being consumed at baseball fields throughout the country, and especially for your little league-ers, we hope you will be chilling and enjoying lots of all natural sugar free zero calorie ZEVIA at your Baseball games and parties.

GO ROCKIES!

-Jessica

Jessica, Jeff, Derek, and Ian

Jeff, our national sales manager, had a ZEVIA moment last night. He was completing his pilates class at Studio Evolve, and afterward was hanging out in the pilates studio lobby. Some women were talking about various issues, like knitting, fashion and Ashton Kutcher when Jeff heard over his left shoulder: “. . . and then PCC was all out of ZEVIA!”. Jeff turned and smiled figuring that one of the ladies was ribbing him when the pilates instructor chimed in: “Amy, I want you to meet Jeff. He’s Mr. Zevia.” Five women were having a public conversation about ZEVIA, and how much they loved it.

Last weekend, Jessica and I were eating at Bis on Main, a fine dining restaurant. Jessica, as always, had a can of ZEVIA Natural Cola on the table. A waiter (and not the one serving us) saw ZEVIA, and came over to us smiling. He said “You’re drinking ZEVIA. I love ZEVIA. My wife and I enjoy several each week.”

That same weekend, Ian was working out at the Westin Hotel in Las Vegas. A girl on the treadmill was talking about ZEVIA with the person on the exercise machine next to her.

After starting this company from scratch, and putting everything we have into it (lots of money, time, and passion) for the last few years – the “ZEVIA moments” are oh so rewarding. Please share your ZEVIA moments with us.

-Derek

We’ve received a lot of good news about ZEVIA lately, but this is perhaps the best yet. SPINS is a research company that reports actual sales at retail in the natural products channel, and ranks sales volume by brand/product. We received a national SPINS report ranking beverages.

In ZEVIA’s category of several hundred beverages, ZEVIA Natural Cola is #1 in the United States. In a combined ranking of several beverage categories (including not only soda, but sparkling juice drinks, energy drinks, etc.), ZEVIA Natural Cola is #3 overall, and each of the ZEVIA flavors rank in the top 3% of all beverages! In the hundreds of stores surveyed, more customers are buying each ZEVIA flavor than any flavor of Hansen’s Natural sodas, Izze sparkling juice drinks, Monster and Red Bull energy drinks, San Pellegrino mineral waters, Orangina juice sodas, Diet Coke, or Diet Pepsi.

Based upon these trends, within months, ZEVIA will almost certainly be the #1 purchased beverage in all categories in the natural food channel.

Thank you for trying ZEVIA, returning to buy more of it, and telling your friends and family about the original zero calorie natural soda. We have a very limited budget, which means that you are our marketing plan. You’ve made ZEVIA the #1 cola. We are so grateful for your support and for you going into stores requesting they carry ZEVIA, and for serving ZEVIA at your parties, barbeques, and school events.

-Derek

ZEVIA in Whole Foods, Austin, Texas

My last post talked about the ZEVIA stock out at the Whole Foods Market in Bellevue, Washington. This post is about a Whole Foods that has ZEVIA well stocked.

Ghim-Sim Chua is the founder and CEO of the Cha Dao Tea Company. Cha Dao Tea is my favorite tea. It has a shelf life of only two weeks and is the first fresh bottled tea in America. Cha Dao to teas is like Odwalla to Orange Juice: the finest and freshest available.

Ghim is visiting Whole Foods stores in Texas to check out Cha Dao on the shelf. He was nice enough to send me the photograph above of the shelf of ZEVIA at the Whole Foods store in Austin, Texas. We’re so excited to be in Whole Foods, and thrilled to see such great placement in the city where Whole Foods was founded and maintains its headquarters. Hopefully, the store in Bellevue will follow suit and make a wall of ZEVIA.

-Derek

Empty ZEVIA Shelf at Whole Foods, Bellevue, WA

The vision of ZEVIA began for me at the Whole Foods in Bellevue, Washington. That’s where Jessica and I used to go for pizza, until she banned me because Whole Foods didn’t sell a diet soda for her. Without that experience, Ian, Jes, and I might not have decided to create ZEVIA. That was three years ago.

Now, finally, ZEVIA is being deployed in every Whole Foods Market in the country. I was so excited this weekend to visit the Whole Foods where it all started. The visit was bitter/sweet. To our surprise, ZEVIA was sold out. We spoke with a team member, who let us know the shelf was completely stocked on Friday. By Sunday, it was all gone. While it’s fantastic that Bellevue shoppers are already demanding ZEVIA, we need to make sure there’s plenty of stock available. Luckily, our distributor is in Whole Foods every day of the week. Any stock outs will be temporary, and Whole Foods is usually great at ordering enough to make sure there’s plenty.

-Derek