Cheers to that: How prebiotic drink startup Blume secured national distribution to fight ‘Big Soda’

Sydney-based drinks startup Blume is celebrating its first national distribution deal through Harris Farm Markets and WHSmith, as founder Rachel Castelino attempts to upgrade the soft drinks aisle of stores nationwide.

Its appearance in major chain stores comes just a year after launch, with the company showing how beverage newcomers can challenge what Castelino dubs “Big Soda”.

Speaking to SmartCompany, Castelino shared the business’ backstory, while revealing some of the key ingredients to securing the business of stockists nationwide.

“I always kind of wanted to go off and do my own thing”

Castelino said Blume treads a middle ground between traditional soft drinks, which are usually packed with sugar and artificial sweeteners, and kombucha, the strain of fermented tea which has come to dominate the soft drink alternative market.

It uses cane sugar and stevia, giving soft drink fans a familiar sweet kick, but also includes small amounts of specialty plant fibres — acacia fibre, jerusalem artichoke inulin, and chicory root inulin — which the company touts as a ‘prebiotic’ ingredients beneficial for gut health.

Castelino said she was inspired to bring the product to life for two key reasons: her own focus on health, and a perceived lack of upmarket drink options in Australia compared to the United States.

A fibromyalgia diagnosis made her “really take note of what I put in my body”, which meant reconsidering traditional soft drinks.

“And I felt like I was only limited to kombucha and sparkling waters which are great in their own way, but I really wanted like a soda kind of option,” she said.

Castelino, who is originally from New Zealand, said her experiences working as a consultant in the United States exposed her to a wide variety of new options.

Upon relocating to Australia, she found the same dazzling variety of prebiotic beverages was simply not available.

“I kind of wanted to create that option and have it available,” she said.

“I thought like, why not? I’ve always had an interest in beverages, I always kind of wanted to go off and do my own thing.

“And this was the best opportunity for me to create something that I wanted to see here.”

Developing a drink from scratch

Recreating the selection at US chains like Erewhon, the upmarket Los Angeles store to draw a cult following for its organic produce, would take some serious work and upfront funding.

Castelino, whose professional experience was largely centred on social media and e-commerce, “literally Googled ‘beverage manufacturer'”, she said.

That first foray would not result in instant success and would come at a considerable cost.

“I ended up putting quite a bit of money down and they, unfortunately, couldn’t deliver,” Castelino said.

“So I went from that to bouncing around to a few different manufacturers,” while also experimenting with formulas, she added.

Eventually, Castelino recruited a third-party lab to work with ingredients she sourced on her own.

“[I] decided to just kind of take it into my own hands, and then I worked with a really good local brewery kind of figure out you know, the kind of technical aspects of getting a beverage to be shelf-ready,” she added.

Working with a local firm also brought the benefits of low minimum orders, a major win for a brand just finding its feet.

View this post on Instagram

A post shared by Blume Prebiotic Tonic (@drink.blume)

With product in hand, Castelino found early success by going door-to-door in Sydney’s Surry Hills and offering the drink to select grocers and cafes.

At the same time, Castelino set about growing the brand’s social media channels, capitalising on an increasing interest in gut health and alternative beverages.

The company caught the eye of startup community leaders like Priyanka Ashraf, who in 2022 labelled Blume a potential “moneymaker” in the growing tonic industry.

That groundswell and social media interest appeared to pay off in June this year when Blume presented its offering at the Naturally Good food and drink expo.

“After that Harris Farm and WHSmith reached out to me, but I think they were already familiar with the brand prior to the show,” she said.

“But it was only kind of after that I started to gain quite a lot of momentum.”

As Blume drinks make their way to dozens of locations across the country, Castelino is already considering her next steps, and the potential of expanding into Asia, and even the US market which first drove her passion for upmarket beverages.

“I think people are ready to move on from Big Soda,” she said.