Hive Mind Mead & Brew Co has launched a new range of honey-sweetened soft drinks.
Hive Mind Honeyade is a blend of 100% british honey, sparkling water and natural flavours. Two flavours have been launched this month – lime & mint and just honey – with two more joining the range later this spring – strawberry & basil and rhubarb & ginger.
The drinks are lightly sweetened with honey, and have no refined sugar or artificial sweeteners. Using 100% British honey supports bee-keepers and honey producers across the country and the rural economies and communities around them. Bee-keeping also protects vital pollinator populations and can help to sustain better local biodiversity, by improving the environment and farms around the hives through pollination.
The new range is being launched in 330ml sleek cans which are being packaged using a carbon neutral canning line. Honeyade will be available to consumers throughout the UK from independent retailers, farm shops and hospitality venues, as well as being sold through the Hive Mind online shop.
Kit Newell, co-founder of Hive Mind Mead & Brew Co said:
“Honeyade is a proudly ‘ultra un-processed’ drink showcasing the flavours of real honey. We’ve been looking to expand our customer offer beyond our mead and honey beer. This is our first non-alcoholic drink launch and we’ve focused on making something that can appeal to all ages in terms of great flavour, and is also a very natural product. The flavours we’ve developed are based on our experience in developing our sparkling mead range – so these are all tried and tested combinations that we’re offering. They also make excellent mixers.
“These products were developed around the push back against artificial sweeteners, but also the desire to avoid processed ingredients and refined sugar. We believe in keeping it as natural as possible so it makes sense to use the only unprocessed naturally-occurring sugar in the world, honey!
“As with all our products, we’re putting the honey front and centre – and we know that our customers appreciate the positive impact of our mission to boost bee numbers, and that we buy directly from other British bee-keepers as well as using honey from our own bees in the Wye Valley.
“For us as a business, we’re excited about being able to open up new markets and reach new customers across a wider range of non-licensed stores and venues,” he said.
Distributors signed up at launch include Craft Drinks Co and Blas ar Fwyd.
