Soda Vie

Photo Courtesy of Soda Vie

Kansas City's local soda.

SodaVie is an authentic sparkling beverage. It is made by the GetReal Food Company. GetReal Food Company is collaboration between Sean Henry and Benjamin Topel. The story goes that Benjamin was out looking for ways to make great root beer, ginger beer, and other similar sodas.

He found a few recipes that were very real and authentic and tried a few out.  Sean tried them, and encouraged Benjamin to try making them drier (less sweet) and incorporate more herbal flavors. Benjamin made the flavor Thai Basil with Cloves, and it was a hit.

 GetReal Food Company really is about REAL FOOD.  They are passionate about using raw fresh ingredients in their products.  If you went to visit their facility, you would find real fruits, spices, herbs, vegetables, grains and more. You would recognize them by their aroma, their color, and their taste. There would be no chemicals, no additives, no fakes.

Now the word authentic means many things to many people, but to them it means true to the source and process.  Soda Vie is handcrafted in small batches. But so are a lot of products. The main difference is the flavors, which come from several different methods, each providing a different characteristics and expressions of the raw ingredients.

For starters they juice most of the ingredients themselves. This provides both great control, and clear strong original flavors of the fruits, herbs, spices and even vegetables!

They blend them by hand, and taste them up to the actual bottling process. This ensures they have adjusted everything possible to compensate for the natural variations that happen with real food ingredients. For example, the Soda Vie flavor of cucumber has gotten better and better over the last few months. This appears to be connected to the fruit coming more and more into season.

Then there is the bottling process. It is similar to the higher end method used for craft beers. The carbonation process is natural, using naturally occurring yeasts, as well as proprietary blends in house.

There is also a secondary fermentation process that uses friendly bacteria to both preserve, but also enhance the flavors already in the bottle.  The bottling itself, especially the pressure, creates a “juicing” effect on the whole food products they include, which in turn provides a real fresh flavor of the product.

All these factors work together to make SodaVie more similar to a wine, craft beer or champagne than a simple “soda”.

Soda Vie’s goals are really to maintain flavor and authenticity. When developing new flavors, they are always thinking about food and drink pairings, not just something to guzzle when you are thirsty (although that is good too!).

Soda Vie is used on the drink menus at some great restaurants around KC including, blanc+burgers and bottles, Trezo Mare, The Café at Briarflciff Village and Eden Alley and Big City Dogs.

Retail locations for Soda Vie in Kansas City metro area include, Dean and Deluca, The Better Cheddar, and Natures Pantry.   Soda Vie is also available on Wednesdays at the 119^th street Farmers Market and on Thursdays at the Briarcliff Village Farmers Market .

GetReal Food Company is not only passionate about real food; they are into real giving as well. Both Benjamin and Sean have been passionate about working on behalf of Justice, especially as it applies to children. A minimum of 10% of the revenue from GetReal is given to organizations that advocate for widows, and orphans. A growing focus is working with specialized organizations that are extracting children from human trafficking, and providing loving and safe homes for them.

For more information about Soda vie or the GetReal Food Company visit the GetReal Food Company website.

For more local food finds in Kansas City visit What You're Missing KC!