Chia leaders
It began with a beverage made from chia seeds. Now the Van Dyke sisters’ juicery is in full swing producing nutritious drinks powered by the sun
Bottled By the Sun. It’s a cute name for a healthy beverage, but it’s more than just clever branding. Because that’s quite literally how this fresh-pressed juice is made. Along with the other drinks in the Chia Sisters range, Bottled By the Sun comes from a solar-powered juicery in Nelson. After all, when you’re manufacturing in the sunshine capital, why wouldn’t you sign up to that great energy provider in the sky?
It certainly seemed like a no-brainer for the Chia Sisters – aka siblings Florence and Chloe Van Dyke. But then so much of what they produce, and how they produce it, has a refreshingly ‘well, it just seemed logical’ flavour to it. Take for example, their first product – Chia, a nutritious and delicious drink made from hydrated chia seeds and antioxidant-rich juice. Chia was conceived in 2012, when neuroscientist Chloe was looking for a healthy on-the-go drink for triathlete Florence, 29, and their world champion swimmer dad Ben.
“At the time most of the health drinks promoted themselves by what was NOT in them; no added sugar, artificial ingredients, and so on – which is important, but there was nothing actually in them that was beneficial,” explains Chloe, 34. “My father was hydrating chia seeds in water as part of his swim training. I started looking into it more; chia seeds are rich in nutrients that help with, among other things, brain function, immunity, gut health, and energy (this distinguishes us from other beverages that cannot make health claims). But the seeds need to be hydrated in order to get more of the nutrients out of them.”
So they started to produce their first chia drinks without buying any equipment – working from a small brewery and selling at the Nelson market. Payment from those sales allowed them to bottle more. “We just grew organically like that. One of the massive challenges was we were doing something so new and different. It wasn’t just another orange juice; people didn’t know what it was. A lot of education had to go into that and we didn’t have a marketing budget. So there was lots of travelling the country, talking to people, doing tastings… ”
The drink was polarising; no one had seen or tasted a cold drink with seeds floating in it before. But much of the feedback was positive, and the sisters knew they were on the right track when, just six months after launching in 2014, they were named winner of the Health Category at the New Zealand Food Awards.
With three founding principles of ‘nutrition, sustainability and innovation’ – “we’ll never compromise on those” – the pair went on to launch Awaka Sparkling Coconut Water, using green island-grown Fair Trade coconut. And then came Bottled by the Sun fresh pressed juices to celebrate becoming New Zealand’s first solar-powered juicery. The fruit is almost entirely local, and the solar panels in their little juicery soak up so much sun, they can give back in the best of ways. “We’re able to harness up to 16,000KW per hour of solar energy; we use about 8000KW per hour in our juicery and bottle around 3-4 days per week. The excess energy we send back to the grid,” says Florence.
As production has expanded – they now also export to Asia and Australia – so has the team. Now there are nine staff, not all fulltime. The ethical approach isn’t confined to the juices either; the company is an accredited Living Wage employer, which, again, was a non-negotiable. “We’re always looking for ways we can be more sustainable, for ways we can be more of a community. Otherwise, honestly, what’s the point?!” says Chloe.
Official accreditation was important to them, to help “grow awareness of the issue”. “It makes so much sense to have happy staff who aren’t under financial stress at home.”
For Chloe and Florence, doing the right thing isn’t just a bit of add-on marketing, or something they feel they can afford to do once they hit certain milestones. It’s at the core of everything they do, every step they take.
Chloe: “We’ve had people tell us ‘as you grow make sure you still stay ethical’ but for us we feel like it’s the other way around. As we grow we have more opportunities to be ethical because they present themselves… which is fantastic.”
Next up? Currently in development is a hemp protein smoothie, which fits with their guiding principles when looking for a new product. “We always ask, ‘is it innovative and different; we don’t want to do the same things again. Does it have high nutrition and better ingredients? Does it have a sustainability story?’”
Hemp ticks all those boxes, and it’s starting to be grown throughout New Zealand. “It gives us the opportunity to support New Zealand growers,” says Florence. “Plus research shows hemp seed has a higher proportion of protein than almost any other plant source available. The impact on the environment of hemp plant is very low. It is a very sustainable crop.”
The image on this page, from the Chia Sisters website, of the pair propelling themselves like young deer over a rocky mountainside, is symbolic of the way the business has grown – naturally, positively, and by leaps and bounds. Behind the scenes there’s been a lot of hard work and second-guessing. They now have an advisory board “made up of a great group of people, which is hugely beneficial” – including Pic Picot from Pic’s Peanut Butter and local supermarket owner Mark A’court, who has given them great insight into the supermarket world.
“That was one of the challenges when we started, we didn’t know who to talk to. Now down the line there have been so many connections, it’s helped so much. And just talking to people in our position. There are a lot of small food businesses, and when you can sit in the same room together it’s amazing what can come out of it.”
For more about the products and stockists, see chiasisters.co.nz