After a stint in the US in 2021, Blume Prebiotic Tonic founder Rachel Castelino headed to Australia, and quickly found herself missing the beverage options available overseas. Pippa Haupt spoke to Castelino about filling a fun and healthy beverage gap in the market.
Soon after her arrival in Australia, Castelino was quick to notice the stark contrast between the US and Australian beverage markets, primarily a lack of fun and healthy beverage options. Also grappling with her own health issues, Castelino decided she wanted to create her own gut-friendly soda to fill the gap in the market.
“During that time everyone had started to cut down on alcohol as well, so I thought why don't I just create these soda options that I used to drink back in the US?” says Castelino.
A stretch of Covid lockdowns in Sydney then prompted Castelino to get to work on formulating the beverages in her kitchen.
“I also moved into a digital marketing job because I knew that I wanted to take the step down the line with my own business, and with the lockdowns I could spend a lot of time working on the product,” says Castelino.
Castelino then set to work on finding a manufacturer to make the first few SKUs.
“I reached out to manufacturers to develop two to three SKUs initially. Unfortunately it wasn't a positive experience, and I ended up losing a bit of money, time and sanity.
“The ingredients just weren't up to my standard. Then I decided to try and do it myself with contracted help from labs and food technicians and another manufacturer.
“I reached out to flavour houses, local juice manufacturers and producers and started getting all those samples into my apartment to mix them up in my kitchen,” says Castelino.
After getting a feel for the formula, Castelino settled on two SKUs.
“I ended up creating two flavours that I was happy with: Rasperry Lime and Mango.
“I wanted to create fruit flavours, and once I was happy with them, I worked with a small brewer in Rosebery to get them shelf ready, and they then helped create and get the first products out in August last year,” says Castelino.
Making flavours pop
During R&D, Castelino would send recipes to labs to create and test.
“The labs would do shelf-life and microbial tests. Initially we struggled with the mango, as it’s a difficult flavour to make shelf stable, the Raspberry Lime on the other hand was easier because it contains lime juice,” says Castelino.
When it came to getting it into production, Castelino reached out to many different contract manufacturers.
“Being such a small producer, there were some really high minimums for manufacturers, especially in beverage, which I couldn't meet, so would try to negotiate a lower amount,” says Castelino.
Castelino decided to try approaching breweries, landing on the Rosebery brewer who was able to complete an initial run of each SKU.
As for suppliers, Castelino wants to keep it as local as possible, and has used the same apple juice supplier from the start.
“Local and preservative free are the most important things; it's really important to keep the natural and local aspect of the beverage intact,” says Castelino.
Hitting the shelves
When it came time for Blume to make its store debut, Castelino approached her local Maloney’s Grocer, and from there began supplying more Maloney’s Grocers, as well as cafes and coffee shops.
“I would just go to different shops around Sydney and knock on the door and ask if they were interested in stocking Blume.
“It seemed like people really resonated with the mission and what I was trying to achieve with Blume,” says Castelino.
“The biggest success so far has been getting into our stockists that we have now and having such a great relationship with them. Getting stocked is always a challenge because they're taking a bet on you.
“I’d really like to be on every shelf in Australia, and once I've got Australia, then New Zealand, my homeland, and outside of that I’d like to tap places that are underserved by the premium beverage market, Mumbai, where my family is from, for example.”
Castelino sees Mumbai, India’s largest city, as rich in opportunity with its rising demographic of Millennials and Gen Z looking for new flavours and taste experiences.
Blume is now stocked in premium grocers, cafes, restaurants, health food stores and pharmacies in New South Wales and South Australia, and will soon roll out nationally through WHSmith stores and Harris Farm Markets.
