Are you someone who loves soda, but hates how much sugar is in it? You’re in luck! It’s time to love soda again! You can still love the taste of your favorite sodas, but with a twist!
Poppi is a prebiotic soda that is a mixture of fruit juice and apple cider vinegar to create a soda that is great for your gut and something your taste buds will enjoy too!
Poppi began with a husband and wife duo, Allison and Stephen Ellsworth. Due to Allison having chronic health issues, Allison and Stephen wanted to start incorporating healthier habits in their life. She wanted something that would help with her sensitive stomach issues, acne, and promote her gut health.
They started drinking Apple Cider Vinegar and enjoyed how it made them feel, but not the taste. Apple Cider Vinegar is a good detox for your body and contains many health benefits such as lowering blood sugar, killing bacteria, boosting skin and heart health, and increasing your energy. With many benefits, it also is important to know consuming too much could cause throat irritation and tooth decay. This won’t happen unless you over consume too much of it. So, having a can of Poppi won’t harm you.
After just 2 weeks of drinking a shot of apple cider vinegar, Allison could feel the difference in her body. Allison and Stephen started playing around with fruit juices and mixing them with apple cider vinegar and a few other ingredients and created a beverage that they knew had to be on the store shelves. She wanted something with great health benefits, but didn’t have to taste like vinegar.
Their brand was originally marketed as “Mother’s Beverage,” inspired by the vinegar mother inside of apple cider vinegar. They started by selling and promoting at farmers’ markets to get their brand noticed.
They got discovered to go into Whole Foods and began gaining popularity so their next step was going on Shark Tank. Every shark denied their offer except for Rohan Oza. His nickname is the “Brand Father” since he is behind the work of helping Vitamin Water, Vita Coco, and Bai. So, when Poppi went on the show he saw so much potential. Rohan was the one who had the idea for Poppi to change their name before going into Whole Foods for better marketing.
The main inspiration behind the brand name was soda “pop”. They wanted good marketing before launching the brand and needed to be engaging for all consumers. With 5g of sugar or less Poppi is still a fun and tasty beverage.
Poppi is now one of the highest-growing beverage brands and one of Shark Tank’s best deals.
In April 2020, they launched with 6 flavors, a few of them being Allison’s original formula. Now in 2024, they have 11 flavors including raspberry rose, strawberry lemon, cherry limeade, orange, ginger lime, watermelon, grape, doc pop, classic cola, rootbeer, and their newest flavor wild berry.
Poppi can be found at your local grocery stores such as QFC, Whole Foods, Safeway, Target, and Costco! $2.16 for a can of soda may seem like a lot, but the taste and health benefits will make it all worth it!