Nana’s shrub was already a drink. It was not yet a soda.
Fiona’s mum mixed fruit, honey, apple cider vinegar, and water at home in Auckland in the 1970s. Sharp, then sweet. You drank it because it was hers. The work, later, was making that same idea something you would finish — and then want another of.
We did not invent a new recipe. We refreshed the family shrub. The bones stayed: fruit, honey, vinegar.
What we kept
A shrub is fruit, a sweetener, and vinegar. Ours is still that. Nana’s shrub recipe is the through-line. Sidekick is the can.
New Zealand honey. Real fruit. A splash of organic apple cider vinegar. No cane sugar. No stevia. No erythritol. Fiona could not drink diet soda. The shrub was the way out — if it could taste like a drink, not a chore.
What we changed
The kitchen version was still, sour, and easy to put down unfinished. The soda had to be the opposite: bright, fruit-first, and easy to keep drinking.
Bubbles. Sparkling water instead of still. Soda is carbonated. A shrub does not have to be.
Balance. Vinegar is acidity, the way lemon is acidity. In the can it is a splash, not a shot. You should not taste pickle. Some people notice the kick more than others. That is fine. It should not taste like a wellness tonic.
Fruit in the drink, not a flavour note. Colour, body, and taste come from fruit purée and juice. Cherry, mango, pear, strawberry. Mango is North Queensland fruit. Strawberry is Waikato. Honey and vinegar are New Zealand.
A format that leaves the kitchen. A 250ml can. A fridge. A café. A walk. The recipe could stay old-school. The package could not stay a jug in Auckland.
What we did not do
We did not make it medicine. Nana worked in a health food shop. She was ahead of the aisle. We still do not sell the can as a gut drink, a blood-sugar drink, or a healthy Coke. It is soda.
We did not start the company in the 1970s. Nana started the drink. Fiona and Rogan started Sidekick in 2023, after years of kitchen experiments on the family recipe. 2013 was our first business together, at a market stall. Different chapter.
We did not replace honey with a diet sweetener so the panel would look “zero.” Honey is the sweetener the shrub always had.
The test
The test was never a lab claim. It was whether someone would finish the glass.
The Wānaka App wrote that we took the shrub Fiona’s mum swore by and made a drink people actually finish. That is the whole job: same idea, brighter to drink. If you want the ingredient version, not the family one: what ACV soda is and why we still make a shrub.
Shop 12-packs or find a fridge.
