Real fruit
Real juice and purée — if you can taste it as fruit, that's because it is fruit.
Three generations. Thirteen years.
Our Story
A grandmother's recipe. A mother and son. A farmers market stall in 2013. Seventeen awards for a handmade fruit-liqueur and condiment range. And the soda born from a cyclone.
Sidekick is the third business Fiona and Rogan have built together. The first was macarons at the Clevedon Farmers Market when Rogan was still at school — Fiona baked, Rogan built the website and ran the socials. The second was The Damson Collection — a handmade range of fruit liqueur and condiments (jam, ketchup, paste, relish) that quietly racked up seventeen awards across seven international and domestic juries.
The third was an accident. In February 2023, Cyclone Gabrielle hit the East Coast and wiped out the damson crop — the entire raw material for the liqueur and condiment business. The family had a thirteen-year body of work and nothing to make it with. Sidekick is what we built next.
Our inspiration
Before "functional drinks" had a category, there was Nana's kitchen. Long before shrubs reappeared on cocktail menus, Fiona's Lancashire born mum was making her own version at home: seasonal fruit, honey, and raw apple cider vinegar — a simple family recipe for something refreshing, bright, and not overly sweet.
It became the family answer to soft drinks that left you without a sugar crash.
Years later, that same recipe became Sidekick. Not reinvented — revived.
Sidekick takes the original logic and brings it into a modern format: lightly sparkling, easy to drink, and crafted for everyday life. Born in the Southern Alps of New Zealand and crafted with real fruit, New Zealand honey, and a splash of raw apple cider vinegar, it delivers bright flavour, gentle sweetness, and a clean finish.
Three generations later, the recipe still works. Only now it comes in a can and a bottle.
How we got here
From Nana's kitchen to a Clevedon farmers market stall to Erewhon in Los Angeles. Three generations and three businesses, all built on the same recipe.
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Generations
It started in Nana's kitchen
The Sidekick recipe didn't start in 2023. Or 2018. Or even 2013.
It started a generation earlier — in Fiona's mother's kitchen. Raw apple cider vinegar, blended with honey and seasonal fruit. A traditional shrub. A daily ritual. An elixir for life.
Three generations later, that same recipe is still what Sidekick is built on.
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2013
Macarons at Clevedon Farmers Market.
The first business. Rogan was still at school. Fiona baked every Friday night; Rogan built the website and ran the socials.
On Sunday mornings, they sold macarons at the Clevedon Farmers Market — learning firsthand what small-batch food retail actually requires.
That stall shaped the operating system every business since has been built on: real ingredients, no shortcuts, and talking to customers face to face.
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2018
The Damson Collection.
What began at the macaron stall grew into a new range — The Damson Collection. A line of handmade condiments built around real damson plums and seasonal New Zealand fruit.
Liqueur, jam, ketchup, paste, and relish — all made with the same commitment to real ingredients and no shortcuts.
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February 2023
Cyclone Gabrielle wipes out the damson crop.
One of New Zealand's worst weather events in living memory hits the East Coast. Overnight, the entire damson harvest — the raw material behind the family's liqueur and condiment range — is lost.
Everything the business depended on, gone in a single event.
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Mid 2023
Sidekick.
We needed a product that didn't live or die by a single fruit crop.
Fiona's solution: take the family shrub recipe — raw apple cider vinegar, honey, and seasonal fruit — and rework it as a sparkling soda. Less dependence on any one harvest. Same craft. Same three ingredients.
After months of small-batch testing in the family kitchen, four flavours earned their place: Cherry, Mango, Pear, and Strawberry.
Sweetened with honey. No stevia. No monk fruit.
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Late 2023
Sidekick launches in New Zealand.
First commercial production runs. Sidekick lands on shelves in independent grocers and cafés across the country.
The early response is immediate: "Finally a low-sugar soda that doesn't taste like a diet soda."
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2025
Stocked at Erewhon, Los Angeles.
Fiona pitches Sidekick to Erewhon. Weeks later, it's on the shelf.
From a New Zealand kitchen to a Hollywood checkout in eighteen months.
What we won't compromise on
Three rules. They show up in every batch.
New Zealand honey
New Zealand honey from the Midlands — complex enough to carry flavour without a sugar crash. Independently lab-verified for purity.
Organic ACV
Raw, unfiltered apple cider vinegar from Nelson — the bite that makes a shrub a shrub. Adds a clean, grown-up finish without phosphoric acid.
The founders
Sidekick is run by family.
Fiona Tomlinson
Co-founder
Master of slow craft. Started baking macarons for the Clevedon Farmers Market in 2013. Founded The Damson Collection — a fruit-liqueur and condiment range that took World's Best Fruit Liqueur in 2020 and put seventeen awards in the family trophy cabinet. Believes if a recipe needs more than five ingredients to taste good, the recipe is wrong.
Rogan Tomlinson
Co-founder
Built the macaron website at age seventeen and never stopped. Runs the day-to-day at Sidekick — sourcing, packaging, retail relationships, the digital side. I just love dogs — and Paw Justice is one of the parts of the brand I'm proudest of — alongside our Breast Cancer Cure campaign on Watermelon.
Our partners
A piece of every can supports Paw Justice — we've partnered with Breast Cancer Cure on our limited-edition Watermelon pre-order, and we support Grow Wānaka's community garden and food resilience work in the Upper Clutha.
Paw Justice
Animal welfare, NZ
Fiona's been best mates with Paw Justice co-founder Craig Dunn for years — so when it came time to put our money where our hearts are, Paw Justice was the obvious choice. Rogan just loves dogs; our homes have always had re-homed and rescue cats and dogs in the mix.
Paw Justice is a New Zealand-based charity working to stop animal cruelty and rescue at-risk animals — and a piece of every can of Sidekick supports their work.
Cheers to making a positive impact, one bottle at a time.
Grow Wānaka
Community garden & food resilience, Wānaka
Grow Wānaka is a charitable trust running a community garden, composting hub, and education space in the Upper Clutha — built to strengthen local food security, cut waste, and bring people together through shared mahi.
Sidekick supports their weekly Bee & Brew working bees, and we donate to Grow Wānaka alongside Paw Justice and local food banks — because the causes we care about start in our own backyard.
Breast Cancer Cure
Breast cancer research, NZ
Fiona walked Hike for a Cure at Lake Hāwea Station with friends — alongside almost a thousand others raising funds for Breast Cancer Cure. We've launched our Watermelon flavour as a limited-edition collaboration: NZ$10 from every 12-pack sold goes toward breast cancer research here in NZ.
For the full story, gallery, and pre-order, head to our campaign page.