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Nudie bares all about new beverage ranges

This month marks the 10th birthday for beverage manufacturer, nudie. To help celebrate, the Australian brand has released two new products, which are a slight deviation from the brand's core range. Brand 'governess' Rachel Clarke sat down with Food mag to share the details.

New ranges
"We've got two new ranges. We've got the v-nudie range which is 100 percent fruit – there's nothing added, it's all about fruit and vegies. For the first time this is a vegie range by nudie and there are three products: apple, cucumber and kiwifruit; carrot, apple, orange and ginger; and beetroot, pineapple, mint and more ['more' includes apple and carrot].

"So they're quite unique flavours, but flavours that we've been working on for a really long time that deliver on taste and are all about nudie's ethos of being nothing but fruit…with vegetables," says Clarke.

Not only is the v-nudie range nudie's first vegetable juice range, but it's also a 1L offering, a size the brand has never released before.

"It's a family offering, to help people get their two and five serves of fruit and vegies a day."

About two weeks after v-nudie was released, Wonder Winnie hit the shelves.

"Wonder Winnie is a completely different offering," says Clarke. "Again, it's made by nudie but it's not a nudie product because, as I said, nudie's all about fruit in a bottle.

"Wonder Winnie is a water-based, light quencher so it's made with water, it contains fruit juice, is naturally sweetened with Stevia which makes it a low calorie drink. So we're targeting different people. Wonder Winnie is all about thirst quenching and taste and being light."

The five flavours which make up this new range are cranberry and apple with aloe vera; grapefruit with gingko biloba; lemon and apple with guarana; cranberry, apple and lemon with echinacea; and cranberry and raspberry with rosehip.

Healthy undertones
It's not surprising that nudie, like many food and beverage brands in Australia, is reluctant to publish health claims on or about its products.

"It's really tricky to talk about health benefits on products. It's just not something we do and it's not something you can really do, to say 'this juice will make you healthy' … so we don't promote it [Wonder Winnie] as a health drink, but definitely the fact that it's low in calories is great for people who are watching their weight or on a diet," says Clarke.

She adds that it's nudie's commitment to steering clear of preservatives and unnatural additives which tells consumers it's a healthier option when compared to other beverages in the market.

"I think it's because they're 100 percent fruit juice. There's nothing added, no preservatives, it's just a natural fruit drink. So yes, I guess it is a healthier option than other beverages out there, but we don't really promote the healthiness of it too much. It's just more about fruit, fun and having a good time," she says.

The use of Stevia in the Wonder Winnie range allowed nudie to hold onto its commitment to natural ingredients, while still thinking outside the box and expanding its product range.

"For us it was really important that this would be a natural product, especially being made by nudie, it had to fit into our core 'nothing but fruit' message.

"So Stevia is a completely natural product. It's extracted from a plant and is 100 times sweeter than sugar, so you only need a really little bit to add to your product, and we use it because it's natural. We wouldn't be comfortable using anything in our juices or drinks that wasn't natural. The fact that we can add it and it delivers on taste and makes the drink low calorie is why we used it," says Clarke.

Not easy being nudie
Staying true to its 'nothing but fruit' mantra isn't an easy thing for nudie to do, says Clarke.

The brand, which also sources about 80 percent of its fruit from within Australia, is constantly educating its clients on how to best handle the product.

"A nudie product is not an easy product to make because we don't add any preservatives or additives, so it's a natural product in a bottle. It's difficult to make because you need to make sure that everything's completely clean, you're using the best quality fruit – because taste is super important – but then you've also got the other side of it, which is transport and storage. You can't just deliver it and have them let it sit out of the fridge for an hour or so. So it's a hard product to make and it's a hard product to distribute, transport and store."

Communication with clients and consumers is paramount, she adds. Nudie tries to urge its clients to order small numbers frequently, because its products have a short shelf life and, exluding Wonder Winnies, can't be stored for extended periods or without refrigeration.

"So it's about communicating to people and making it clear on the bottle that you can't leave this out of the fridge. Some people don't really get it. We still get people calling and saying they left a nudie drink in their car and it exploded all through the car, which is a bad thing, but it's also a good thing because then people realise that there's actually nothing added. If you leave your juice in the car and it's a 40 degree day and it makes it through to the end of the day, it kind of makes you wonder what's in it.

"So for a nudie to be that fragile – it's a really good thing."

 

Head to our Facebook page to see pics from Food mag's visit to nudie's HQ.

 

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