Americans drink about as much soda as they do water.  That isn’t to say that they drink as much soda as “bottled water”—that figure includes (amazingly) ALL water.  The vast majority of soda sold and consumed in this country is from “traditional” manufacturers who utilize preservatives, artificial ingredients and high fructose corn syrup in their formulations.  We simply believe that those ingredients are unhealthy and that people deserve better.  While we realize that this is not the most urgent political issue of our time, it does affect the health of millions and it matters.  At Snow Beverages we strive to make a “better soda” and to be a “better company.”  Therefore, we pledge to our customers, friends and fans that we will always adhere to the following principles:

1.  NO Artificial Junk.  Simply put, we will never include an ingredient in any of our products that we believe is unhealthy or that we wouldn’t feed to our own families.
2. NO Phony Marketing.  Sure, we want you to buy our soda.  We will do what we can—ethically and responsibly—to try and convince as many people as possible to choose our products.  But we will never mislead or lie to consumers.  We will strive to be transparent whenever possible and build a dialogue with our customers and our community based on honesty and integrity—words that we do not take lightly or consider to be clichés.
3. NO Silly Claims.  Soda is not a “health drink.”  It is about fun and exuberance and it’s an indulgence.  Ours happens to be natural, and it is not “unhealthy” but it will not make you live longer, make you smarter, make you better in bed, give you the power to fly, to transmute matter into energy or travel through time…  and we will never make any silly claims that are health-related or otherwise.  We just make Naturally Refreshilicious soda.  That claim is enough for our fans.
4. Natural cane sugar is not somehow inherently “evil.”  We will not succumb to the misinformation in the popular media lately about sugar, in any form, being the cause of all health evils.  It is not.  We use natural cane sugar in some of our products (and natural no-calorie sweeteners such as Stevia in others we are developing.)  However, there is more sugar in juice than there is in most soda.  Is orange juice unhealthy?  Of course not.  There are many other ingredients in traditional soda that are unhealthy and a correlation between traditional soda consumption and certain illnesses might be more about those ingredients—like preservatives, artificial flavors, artificial sweeteners, etc.—than simply “calories.” 
5. We will not accept the status quo.  In 1980, when I became a health-conscious vegetarian, my mom had to go to a health food store and pay triple the regular price for a can of natural soup without preservatives or other chemicals.  Now, you can go to any supermarket.  Soda does not have to be unhealthy either, and someday, most of it will not be.  Today, there are many natural brands (including Snow) that you can choose instead of traditional soda.
6. We won’t quit.  Yeah, so the other guys are a lot bigger, a lot tougher, and have a lot more money.  That’s okay.  We’re better dancers.
7. Snow Beverages will always be a good corporate citizen of the world.  A company’s primary responsibility is to create and enhance value for its shareholders.  That said, it is everyone’s responsibility, always, to protect the planet and to care about others.  We will do our best.

     Together, we can make meaningful changes and improvements in our world, one step at a time.  I hope one of your many steps will be to join us in The Soda Revolution.  You can start by becoming our fan on Facebook at:  www.facebook.com/drinksnow.

Yours truly,

Stu Strumwasser

CEO of Refreshilciousness

Snow Beverages, Inc.

Snow Beverages Founder and CEO Stu Strumwasser discusses the Mission Statement of the Soda Revolution.

We were recently contacted by several dietitians interested in the fact that our products contain essentially no phosphorous, no potassium andf little or no sodium.  We have also recently introduced our first natural soda that has zero calories.  Our Light lemon Lime has zero calories, is natural–and is delicious.  Snow Light Cola is coming soon.

Please check out the brief attached video clip and feel free to contact us for more information at info@snowbeverages.com.  Thanks!

I will be on local radio in New Haven talking about the healthy versus unhealthy options in carbonated soft drinks, and commenting on their recent interview with Michael Blanding, author of “The Coke Machine” which was recently released.  Vinnie Penn on WELI AM in New Haven–Tuesday morning.

     If you get a chance, please check it out.

-Stu

We are committed to making natural products that are healthy. Our CEO has committed to tattooing the Snowflake icon from our logo on his arm if we get 1000 new fans on facebook (if we break 2500 fans) before the end ofSeptember. Maybe he should just BE committed? Please “like” us on facebook at www.facebook.com/drinksnow and help us “Tattoo Stu.”

Below you will find a reprint of an article that I just read on cnn.com.  To anyone who still denies global warming, get your wetsuit.  To everyone else:  press harder to save The Snowflakes.  It can still be done, but we have no more latitude for one minute of delay.

(CNN) — A piece of ice four times the size of Manhattan island has broken away from an ice shelf in Greenland, according to scientists in the U.S.

The 260 square-kilometer (100 square miles) ice island separated from the Petermann Glacier in northern Greenland early on Thursday, researchers based at the University of Delaware said.

The ice island, which is about half the height of the Empire State Building, is the biggest piece of ice to break away from the Arctic icecap since 1962 and amounts to a quarter of the Petermann 70-kilometer floating ice shelf, according to research leader Andreas Muenchow.

“The freshwater stored in this ice island could keep the Delaware or Hudson rivers flowing for more than two years. It could also keep all U.S. public tap water flowing for 120 days,” Muenchow said.

Muenchow’s team is studying ice in the Nares Strait separating Greenland from Canada, about 1,000 kilometers south of the North Pole.

Satellite data from NASA’s MODIS-Aqua satellite revealed the initial rupture which was confirmed within hours by Trudy Wohlleben of the Canadian Ice Service, according to the University of Delaware website.

Muenchow said the island could block the Nares Strait as it drifts south, or break into smaller islands and continue towards the open waters of the Atlantic.

“In Nares Strait, the ice island will encounter real islands that are all much smaller in size,” he said.

“The newly born ice island may become land-fast, block the channel, or it may break into smaller pieces as it is propelled south by the prevailing ocean currents. From there, it will likely follow along the coasts of Baffin Island and Labrador, to reach the Atlantic within the next two years.”

Environmentalists say ice melt is being caused by global warming with Arctic temperatures in the 1990s reaching their warmest level of any decade in at least 2,000 years, according to a study published in 2009.

Current trends could see the Arctic Ocean become ice free in summer months within decades, researchers predict.

Someone just sent me this image.  I think it speaks for itself.  Too many calories are bad for you–true.  Getting NO calories happens to also be bad for you–if you want to avoid death that is.  We desperately need someone in government to begin a more responsible and comprehensive dialogue about health that extends beyond JUST calorie counting.  hey, wait a minute.  maybe when this Soda revolution thing starts really rocking I will run for office….

-Stu Strumwasser,

CEO of Refreshiliciousness

Snow Beverages, Inc.

     Last night I read a press release about Governor Patterson’s new version of a soda tax proposal and I experienced a feeling vaguely reminiscent of what I think it felt like when consuming too much MSG.  My head felt like it was expanding, balloon-like, in a way that could lead to a potential rupture.

     David Patterson and Michael Bloomberg (a guy I used to respect) are lying to you.  That’s it, plain and simple.  To claim that this tax has anything to do with health is a blatant example of their lack of respect for the public intelligence.  As Patterson redrafts and repositions and kneads and molds this thing into different shapes, trying desperately to find a format acceptable enough to the opposition that it will diminish the fervor of their response and somehow thereby squeak through an unreceptive state legislature so he can get his hands on a billion dollars in new tax money to try and plug the bleeding hemorrhage in his mis-managed state budget, his latest proposal comes down to this:

     They are going to drop the EXISTING taxes on diet soda and ramp UP the tax on regular soda, in an effort (so they claim) to try and force consumers to switch from regular soda consumption to drinking diet soda.  You may wonder if that wouldn’t just equal a financial trade-off, but it wouldn’t.  It would generate substantial revenues because the current breakdown of regular versus diet soda consumed in this country is still about 70% regular and 30% diet. 

     Here are my two questions (and therein lies my opposition and anger): 

1.  Even if they succeeded in causing people to switch from regular soda to diet soda, would that really cause a reduction in obesity?
2. Even if that somehow caused a reduction in obesity, would it really be better for the public health?

     Answer # 1:  It is questionable (at best) that adding a tax to sweetened soda and removing the existing tax on diet soda would even create a meaningful reduction in obesity.  There are many who claim that drinking diet soda messes with the sweetness receptors in the brain, confuses the metabolism and, in the end, actually causes the opposite of the desired effect—it CAUSES additional weight gain.  Put it this way:  have you ever noticed anyone sort of heavy drinking diet soda?  Furthermore, where is the hard science that proves that this might work?  Even those supporting the tax, at the end of the day, acknowledge that it is theoretical.

     Answer # 2:  Trying to address obesity by motivating people to consume large quantities of a beverage with artificial sweeteners (not to mention artificial, chemical preservatives, artificial flavors, and other unhealthy chemicals) is kind of like telling someone with a cold to cure it by sitting out in the snow butt-naked.  Sure, the cold will be cured—they’ll end up with either the flu or pneumonia.  Weight, BMI, and obesity is not the only measure of one’s health!  Do Governor Patterson and Mayor Bloomberg not know this?  Of course they do.  But they are simply acting like the worst kind of politicians and hiding their real agenda in a phony claim they are trying to spoon feed to a public they obviously think can’t read or reason too well.  There are tons of scientists and important anecdotal information that suggest potential links between artificial sweeteners and cancer.  Would it really serve the “public health” to trade off one health crisis (obesity) for another (cancer)?

     When is SOME politician going to step up to the plate and acknowledge these three simple things:

1.  The proposed soda tax is myopic, arbitrary and amounts to taxing an ingredient (high fructose corn syrup—after all, there is no real sugar in the vast majority of soda) that is made very cheap, in the first place, through government subsidies—i.e. “taxes.”  Maybe Patterson should spend some time trying to get the federal government to remove subsidies that make HFCS so cheap in the first place.  Then, instead of double-TAXING New Yorkers, he could REMOVE a tax in the first place—but still achieve his alleged objective of causing a tax increase on soda to force a reduction in consumption.  But again, this isn’t really about health, so don’t expect him to waste his time….
2. Obesity is not the only measure of health and if anyone really cares about the “public health” we need to have an overarching conversation and examination of that in a way that is much more comprehensive as well as responsible.
3. This soda tax is purely about money.  Let’s just be straight about it already.

     Like many “problems” or “issues” this current media attention and this dialogue is not just a “challenge” to overcome, but rather, it’s an opportunity.  For us to get anything out of it we need some common sense and real concern for the public at large, and less of the old politics of money and mis-direction.

-Stu Strumwasser,

CEO of Refreshiliciousness

Snow Beverages, Inc.

 Don’t ask me how, but I ended up hosting a concert in the media room of my Manhattan apartment building last night. It was a private show organized by my buddy Johnny Beach (the talent buyer for The Bowery Ballroom of Bowery Presents) and featured the brilliant solo acts of Will Johnson (of centro-matic and also the drummer in Monsters of Folk) as well as Anders Parker (formerly of Varnaline and Space Needle.) When Johnny asked me to do this I was sure it would be a total fiasco that would probably get me tossed from my building—so of course I agreed. What happened instead was quite different. We had one of those spontaneous and magical moments wherein we were all reminded why we care so much about music. Before I founded Snow Beverages I spent fifteen years trying to get people to listen to my songs, but I always had a pretty good day job. Conversely, there are thousands of kids right now driving around the country in vans who won’t make gas money tonight at their shows, but they do it for love. Last night, I watched Will and Anders sing their freaking hearts out for thirty strangers in a NYC apartment—and it was perfect. Thanks guys. In attendance were some of the folks from Bowery Presents, Kevin French of Paradigm, DJ Headyruxpin and several other NYC music industry dignitaries, as well as thirty randowm (and lucky) ticket buyers—but for two hours we were all simply great fans of watching a dude on a stool with an acoustic guitar. BTW, tonight—The Wedding Present at Bowery, and we are all very psyched for Earthrockers, when Snow will co-sponsor the Kidrockers show at Bowery on Sunday April 25th. What could be stranger (or better!) than watching bands like Real Estate and Apollo Sunshine rock out for hundreds—of kids between 3 and 13. -Stu Strumwasser, CEO of Refreshiliciousness, Snow Beverages

I am happy to pass along news that the Legislativegazette.com reported yesterday, in an article by Smita Bhooplapur entitled, “Legislature Discards Soda Tax” as follows:
“The Senate and Assembly both rejected a proposed tax on sugar-sweetened beverages after the beverage industry relentlessly protested against it over the past few months.

Although both houses of the Legislature excluded the proposed tax from their budget resolutions, negotiations with the governor over a final 2010-2011 budget are pending, and the ultimate decision will be known after an agreement is reached.”

The article went on to say, “Sen. Diane Savino, D-Staten Island, who opposes the tax, said, “We have uniformly come to the conclusion that this tax is a bad idea.”

Dismissing the argument that the tax would help decrease obesity, Savino said more emphasis needs to given to primary and preventive care instead of “picking people’s pocket in an attempt to fight childhood obesity.”

Maybe now our local and federal governments can get on with the more serious business of addressing obesity and health from a more responsible and comprehensive perspective and also educating consumers about the truly unhealthy ingredients in traditional soda (like high fructose corn syrup and chemical preservatives) and stop obsessing about natural cane sugar.

Below is an article just published by the American Beverage Association.  Obviously they have a biased perspective and a vested interest in the issue (as do we) but that does not make their position or opinions any less valid than those who support a soda tax.  Please read the article below.  It is well-articulated common sense.  -Stu

News Releases & Statements

In today’s Metro newspaper in NY there was another amazingly misleading statement made by a so-called expert, Dr. Jo Ivey Boufford.  Below is my letter to the editor in response.

Dear Editor:  I am writing in response to the opinion article I read in this morning’s Metro by Dr. Jo Ivey Boufford entitled, “One Sweet Reason For A Soda Tax.”  Dr. Boufford states, “The beverage industry can play an important role by promoting natural juices and other products that do not contribute to overweight and would not be subject to the tax.”  With all due respect to the President of the New York Academy of Medicine, her statement is factually incorrect and she contradicts herself.  It is a perfect example of the incredibly misleading information being circulated around the issue of this ill-conceived proposed legislation.  Eight ounces of leading traditional soda contains around 95 calories.  Eight ounces of our natural and vitamin-fortified soda contains only about 75 calories.  All it takes is five minutes on the internet to learn that eight ounces of orange juice contains around 110-120 calories.  Apple juice weighs in at around 115 and cranberry juice contains between 120 and 140 calories!

     While it is true that the calories in juice are not from “added” sugar, the calories are still there.  How the President of the New York Academy of medicine could make such a confusing and inaccurate statement is strange and disappointing to me.  It is not, however, surprising.  The myopic and obsessive focus on “sugar” and only on sugar in “soda” has been arbitrary and misleading.  The proposed tax will charge New Yorkers more for soda with sugar but not tax diet soda, which many (including me) believe is more unhealthy.  It will not tax juice, which has even more (not less!) calories.  No one is proposing to tax candy or cake that may be loaded with even more calories while having little or no nutritional value.  Why?

     This tax is about desperately trying to scrounge up money to close a massive budget gap.  It is not truly about health.  Furthermore, it is confusing and causing a distraction from us having what we really need in America:  a more responsible dialogue on obesity and on health in general from a comprehensive and overarching perspective.  Let’s at least start by telling consumers the truth.

Yours truly,

Stu Strumwasser

President & CEO

Snow Beverages, Inc.

New York, NY