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:
- 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.
- 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.
- 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.
- 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.”
- 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.
- 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.
- 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.
Gary "Songman" Kupper says:
Hey Stu, Jen was showing me your message. It’s really great. One thing though, as a borderline diabetic, the cane sugar vs. Juice argument is a little ingenuous. While juice has a great deal of sugar, the naturally occurring sugar is easier to absorb and process than added cane sugar. Otherwise you argument is spot on. There are other sugar substitutes that could be used such as non flavored stevia and agave that would be much healthier as an alternative to cane sugar. But relatively speaking the sugar issue is really stupid and arbitrary as far as regulating soda and not cake for instance or Rolling Stone songs like Brown Sugar which encourages sugar usage and sex at the same time. Anyway, keep up the great work and love the face hair thing. Love to the twins…….Songman
March 13, 2010, 10:44 pmStu says:
Songman- what you are saying, from a perspective of the glycemic index is valid, but it does not make my position or statements incorrect. The sugar in juice may (I say “may”) be more easily metabolized than natural cane sugar. (And there is a ton of anecdotal evidence that shows that both are more easily metabolized than high fructose corn poison). Agave is too, but it has plenty of calories also. Stevia I happen to be very familiar with (as well as erythritol, which is totally natural, or using a combination of the two) but I can tell you that after spending a long time trying to make a great-tasting natural no-calorie soda with either of them, it just ain’t close to the taste of sugar. But the real issue with the tax has nothing to do with any of those things:
March 13, 2010, 11:04 pm1. How can you tax soda and not the poison in diet soda if you really care about people’s health?
2. How can you tax soda but not other things with MORE calories, like juice, if you really care about obesity?
3. How can you tax soda but not other things with MORE calories, and NO nutritional value (like say cake or candy or god knows what) if you really care about obesity?
The fact is, they don’t. They are just trying to make some money to plug the budget deficit and it is very misleading and disingenuous to pretend it is really about health or obesity as (like I keep saying) it is causing a myopic and misleading focus on the sole effect of “sugar” while distracting from a responsible or comprehensive discussion about health and obesity, which is still badly needed.
-Stu
Gary "Songman" Kupper says:
Totally agree with you. Just was trying to clarify your original statement. But the whole thing is lame as far as taxing one thing and not taking the whole picture of horrible foods that actually kill people. The nutritive education in this country is almost non-existent. But things have improved incrementally as you pointed out. So keep up the fight brother, we’re with you in your crusade to raise some consciousness and fight stupid half measures like this proposed tax that could end up doing more harm than good.
March 13, 2010, 11:22 pm`Melatonin Supplement says:
we have a small stevia garden at home and the dried leaves are very very sweet-:’
August 20, 2010, 1:01 am