The honey-honey-sweetened, real-fruit, apple cider vinegar soda. No cane sugar. No stevia. No erythritol. Here's why people switch — and stay.
Most stevia-sweetened sodas didn't work for our family. Stevia tasted bitter and chemical. Diet sodas were undrinkable. The sodas that called themselves natural were still sweetened with cane sugar and stevia, just dressed up.
So we made our own — sweetened with New Zealand honey, made with real fruit, with a kick of apple cider vinegar. No cane sugar. No stevia. No erythritol.
If that sounds like the soda you've been looking for, we made it for you.
— Fiona & Rogan, founders
The category has changed fast. Here's what actually matters when you're reading the back of a can.
Aspartame, sucralose, and acesulfame potassium are common in diet and "zero sugar" sodas. Many people prefer to avoid them.
Cheap, ubiquitous in regular soda, and the main reason a regular can has 27g+ of sugar.
Erythritol and xylitol can cause bloating and GI issues for sensitive stomachs. Recent cardiovascular research is worth watching.
Phosphoric acid gives traditional cola its bite at a cost to enamel. Caramel colour, Red 40, Yellow 5 — none of it needs to be there.
If you can't recognise most of what's on the back of the can, that's a signal.
Real juice or purée doing the heavy lifting. It's the difference between tasting fruit and tasting fruit-flavoured.
We don't chase 0g sugar with stevia or erythritol. Sidekick is sweetened with New Zealand honey and real fruit — under 4g sugar per 100ml, depending on flavour.
Honey, real fruit, a small amount of cane sugar. Stevia and monk fruit are common but divisive — some people taste them as bitter or chemical.
Adds a clean, grown-up bite without phosphoric acid. Increasingly common in better sodas for good reason.
If you can't pronounce half of it, the soda is doing too much.
Sidekick is built around these principles. Real fruit, New Zealand honey, apple cider vinegar, sparkling water. Nine ingredients, all recognisable.
Built on New Zealand honey, real fruit, apple cider vinegar, and sparkling water.
Not all sodas are created equal. Here's what sets us apart from the rest.
Honey is one of the oldest sweeteners on earth. It tastes like real food because it is real food. We use New Zealand honey — complex enough to carry flavour without aftertaste.
Every Sidekick flavour is built on real fruit juice and purée. You can taste the difference. So can your kids.
Traditional sodas use phosphoric acid for that sharp finish. We use apple cider vinegar instead — small enough that you don't taste it as vinegar, present enough to give Sidekick a clean, adult edge.
Up to a third of people experience stevia as intensely bitter or metallic — it's a real genetic difference in how taste receptors process certain stevia compounds. Our co-founder Fiona is one of them. That's why Sidekick exists.
Our winning difference isn’t the lowest sugar number on the shelf — it’s what’s sweetening the can. Here’s how Sidekick compares on composition.
| Attribute | Sidekick | Prebiotic sodas | Zero-sugar sodas | Regular soda |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Composition | ||||
| Sweetened with | New Zealand honey + real fruit | Stevia, plus added fibre | Stevia + erythritol | Cane sugar / HFCS |
| What we leave out | ||||
| New Zealand honey–sweetened Sidekick is sweetened with New Zealand honey — not cane sugar, stevia, or erythritol. | ✓ | ✗ | ✗ | ✗ |
| Real fruit juice & purée | ✓ | Some | Some | ✗ |
| No cane sugar / stevia / erythritol | ✓ | ✗ | ✗ | ✗ |
| Drink experience | ||||
| Apple cider vinegar | ✓ | ✗ | ✓ | ✗ |
| Caffeine-free | ✓ | Varies | Varies | ✗ |
| Consistent taste, not fermented | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ | ✗ |
Category labels are typical for each shelf set; specific products vary. Sidekick is sweetened with New Zealand honey and real fruit.
Sorted by the four things people tell us most often.
October 31, 2024Sidekick Soda is not a copycat — it's a new, artisanal vision of what soda can be.Read article: Sidekick Soda Stands Out as a Fruit-Filled, Earth-Conscious Alternative
March 12, 2025Featured by Forbes at Expo West 2025 for its use of New Zealand honey as a natural sweetener.Read article: Expo West 2025: Honey as a Sweetener, Jerky as a Protein Source
November 2024A flavorful yet balanced alternative to traditional sodas.Read article: Health-Conscious Soda
Press mention: global expansion and premium retail positioning.Read article: Kiwi brand Sidekick Soda makes a splash in the global beverage market
2024Press release — company announcement, not independent editorial.Read article: Sidekick Soda enters the U.S. market
August 2025Selected from over 1,800 product entries, Sidekick Soda Cherry was named a finalist in the Beverages category of the 5th annual Startup CPG Shelfie Awards.Read article: Sidekick Cherry named a 2025 Shelfie Awards finalist
Sidekick was born from a problem most stevia-sweetened sodas refuse to solve.
Our co-founder Fiona is one of the millions of people who experience stevia as intensely bitter and chemical-tasting — a real genetic difference in how taste receptors process certain compounds in stevia leaf. For her, most stevia-sweetened sodas weren't disappointing. They were undrinkable.
So Fiona — already an award-winning drinks maker behind The Damson Collection, with World's Best Fruit Liqueur (2020) and back-to-back Best New Zealand Fruit Liqueur titles — set out to build the soda her family would actually drink. Her son Rogan joined her, and Sidekick launched in 2024.
The recipe: New Zealand honey, real fruit, apple cider vinegar, sparkling water. No cane sugar. No stevia. No erythritol.
A year later, Sidekick is stocked across New Zealand and Australia, building a US store list, and Cherry was named a finalist in the Shelfie Awards by Startup CPG — Beverages, 2025.
Real fruit. Real honey. Real soda. The way it should be.
