Sparkling waters born of fruit — and collaboration
Seasons Sparkling natural sodas, based in Chicago, are made with locally grown fruit.
Bobby Chang is a collaborator. Years ago, he spent weekends off from his corporate job bunching beets and delivering radishes with a local farmer, sparking the idea for a collaboration.
By 2012, the collaboration expanded when he made kegged sodas out of berries from that farmer, Beth Eccles, of Green Acres Farm in North Judson, Indiana, and apples from Ellis Family Farms of Benton Harbor, Michigan, and other fruits from more farmer friends, all vendors at Green City Market in Chicago, where he sold his drinks.
Next he started selling kegs of what he named Seasons Soda to restaurants whose owners and employees shopped at the market. And his tap handles were designed in collaboration with an architect friend. When Seasons switched from kegs to bottles, Chang asked pals to collaborate on the new packaging and logo design.
Recently, Seasons Soda morphed into Seasons Sparkling, making cans of organic waters flavored with fruit, spices and other plant-based ingredients, with direct-to-consumer distribution.
Chang, 39, and his business partner, Ty Boshyan, 45, tinkered with the Seasons Sparkling recipes for months until they found four unique combinations that fit.
“We played around with our anchors — recognizable flavors like grapefruit and lemon — and combined them with more ‘contrarian’ secondary flavors like elderflower and roiboos tea.”
The new flavors are all organic and have no sugar and no calories. “We use such good ingredients — we just try to get out of their way,” Chang says.
The result: sparkling waters that are as refreshing to drink as they are to admire. The lemon elderflower is pretty and delicate, the same true citrus aroma works well with a colalike rooibos tea. The matcha ginger turmeric combination comes across like an understated ginger ale, the added touch of spice coming from organic black pepper extract. The grapefruit rose, lovely on its own, would be very exciting mixed with blanco tequila.
Each can features a striking canvas, collage or sculpture from a different artist friend, chosen to reflect the flavor within. Chang donates 1% of net profits back to the arts, his way of connecting the communities that are most important to him and his business.
You won’t find these eye-catching four-packs at many retail stores. Chang and Boshyan chose the direct-to-consumer route for the new cans of water as a more streamlined and effective way to market the beverage, and their new website launched at the end of March.
“We designed our process so that drinks and art could co-exist,” Chang says. “Now we are trying to get traction wherever we can.”
For now that means dropping product with bartenders who are doing online mixology meet-ups, or supplying companies who are shipping care packages to the homes of displaced office workers. Like many specialty food and beverage businesses, they are “trying to creatively figure out how to ride this thing out.”
Individual consumers can mix and match Seasons Sparkling flavors in an online order from seasonssparkling.com ($28 for a 12-pack), a convenient, affordable and attractive option that stands out in a sea of canned water.