Soda Folk is an award-winning, emerging drinks brand pioneering American craft sodas in the UK. Launching nationwide with their fiery Root Beer and lusciously sweet, Great Taste Award winning Cream Soda, Soda Folk has already secured listings with Selfridges and Byron restaurants nationwide.
Soda Folk was founded by Colorado native, Ken Graham, who, when he moved to London from the states, found himself homesick for Coloradan Root Beer. The FSA crackdown on products with excessive additives led to the banning of American Root Beer imports which largely list Benzoic Acid; Ken decided it was high time he brought craft sodas to our shores, with nothing artificial added, just the best quality ingredients he could find and simple recipes that deliver on taste.
Using the famous Rocky Mountain craft breweries in his home state of Colorado as inspiration, Ken created Soda Folk's modern-classic recipes with high ideals in mind. Just as with craft beer, Soda Folk uses only the highest quality ingredients to ensure a great-tasting refreshment every time.
Soda Folk Cream Soda is made simply with carbonated water, pure cane sugar and Madagascan vanilla extract packing a luxuriant flavour punch, ideal for pairing with food, supping alone or as a partner to a smooth dram of Bourbon. Soda Folk's Root Beer Soda is also made with a base of carbonated water and pure cane sugar, but is taken spicy new heights with the uniquely pungent and piquant root, wintergreen (for the uninitiated, the flavour and aroma is not too distant a cousin from Dandelion & Burdock); rounded off with aged vanilla and pure maple syrup, the creamy drink is an ideal pairing to the classic American hamburger, a novel cocktail ingredient and is taken to a whole new level as part of a Root Beer Float. Londoners can find this decadent treat served up by Street Food hero Blu Top Ice Cream at Kerb and Druid St markets.
Ken says of his inspiration behind the brand, "When I moved to London from America, I knew I'd miss a few things about my native land: family, friends, the Rocky Mountains, baseball, and of course, Root Beer... Growing up in Colorado, I was obsessed with Root Beer, our supermarket shelves were stocked with dozens of locally brewed varieties, and I drank as much of it as my parents would allow. I knew I wouldn't be able to give up on Root Beer, even if I was nearly 5,000 miles from home, so I started Soda Folk to introduce Britain to America's best soft drink. We make the kind of root beer I grew up with: all natural, sweetened with cane sugar, with the perfect blend of sweetness and bite. I just knew that the British public was going to love it too!"
Scott Winston, Selfridges Grocery Buyer comments, "With the craft soda revolution gaining pace in America and the hard soda trend coming to our shores, we're excited to be the first to take Soda Folk root beers and cream sodas to our shelves; as always, we strive to promote exciting and innovative young brands and are supporting the new listing with Soda Folk's involvement in this year's 'Meet the Maker' campaign."
The first restaurant group to introduce Soda Folk to their menu, Byron, is a keen supporter of this entrepreneurial young business. Tom Byng, Byron's founder, said, "We've long supported craft brewing, so we're proud to be the first restaurant group to serve Soda Folk. Ken's craft sodas are the perfect match for our proper hamburgers: classic American flavours, made with great, simple ingredients, and lots of care and attention to detail."
Both Soda Folk's Root Beer and Cream Soda feature on Byron's drinks list, with customers able to create soda floats and hard floats by adding ice cream, a shot of bourbon - or both.
Launched into Selfridges, Byron and a raft of restaurants, bars, cafes and independent shops nationwide, Soda Folk is currently lining up a host of national stockists and premium retailers.
The Soda Folk range comprises two delicious flavours:
o Soda Folk Cream Soda, carbonated water, pure cane sugar and Madagascan Vanilla Extract. Gold Star winner, Great Taste Awards 2015
o RRP £1.40, 330ml can
o Soda Folk Root Beer, carbonated water, pure cane sugar, aged Vanilla Extract and Pure Maple Syrup.
o RRP £1.40, 330ml can
