Photo Credit: Green Bee
Popping open an ice-cold carbonated beverage from a chilled glass bottle is unparalleled. Brunswick, Maine-based Green Bee has created a Honey Soda lineup that made it difficult to narrow down for the Queen’s Choice Award. But the tribute
to our favorite pollinators won us over, and we chose Honeycomb Cider as our Carbonated Drinks choice. We spoke with Green Bee co-founder Lori Kinkade about what makes Honeycomb Cider such an awesome made with honey beverage.
Let’s talk about the functionality of the honey in the Honeycomb Cider. How does the honey work in the functionality in the product?
Kinkade: We use a wildflower blend in our Honeycomb Cider. Our use of honey enables us to offer consumers all-natural sweetness with light calorie counts.
What do you like most about the technical side of working with honey in your carbonated lineup? How does it work best with the bubbly?
Kinkade: What I’m most proud of is the fact that we’ve created an entirely new way of making soda. Honey provides our sweetness, and all of our flavors come from real ingredients.
How would you describe Honeycomb Cider?
Kinkade: Honeycomb Cider to me tastes just like autumn in a bottle. It reminds me of apple picking on a crisp New England fall day. Words like, fresh, delicious and crisp come to mind.
You say that Honeycomb Cider is a tribute to the hardworking pollinators: the bees. How does the product and your company support beekeepers and honey bees in particular?
Kinkade: Our hope in making Green Bee is that we can help remind everyone of just how important our pollinators are. It would be a very sad and colorless world without them. Honey bees are responsible for 1 out of every 3 bites of food we eat. By using honey to get our sweetness, we’re helping to support both the bees and the people who keep them.
You place a lot of importance in sustainability and having a handcrafted product. Can you talk a little more about how those relate to honey and bees and how your company works to provide a premium product within these guidelines you’ve set?
Kinkade: When our honey bees began disappearing, it was a bit of a canary in the coalmine moment. It forced us to take a step back and take a look at what was going on in the environment. At Green Bee we want to be a part of the solution. By only using real natural ingredients and honey, we hope to highlight the fact that you can make something that tastes delicious without having a negative impact on both your health and the health of our environment. Honey bees are the original handcrafters! Bees never sleep and inspire us to work hard to make something uniquely natural.