The FoodHub team is breaking out the bubbly – a bubbly bottle of fruit soda that is: Hotlips Soda is our 3,000th Member!
A subsidiary of Hotlips Pizza – the group of five family-owned restaurants that tossed their first pie in Portland back in 1984 – Hotlips Soda draws its distinctive flavor profiles from the bounty of the Northwest. The company actively nurtures relationships with local farmers to keep its supply chain stocked: In 2011 alone they produced about 45,000 gallons of soda and bought more than $78,000 of fruit from local farmers.
Almost two years old, FoodHub built its online directory and marketplace to help companies like Hotlips Soda grow. The soda company joins beverage producers already on FoodHub, like Sage & Sea Farms and Blossom Vinegars, both in Portland, Vincent Family Cranberries in Beaverton, OR, and Sajen Inc. in San Francisco, which all leverage distinctive fruits grown around the region and transform them into one-of-a-kind, sip-able specialties.
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| Hotlips’ Chief Brewer, Greene Lawson, preparing Chester Blackberries for soda. |
“A lot of fruit that comes out of the Northwest is really unique,” said Hotlips’ Co-Owner David Yudkin. “What we want to be is a strong regional soda company and we feel like our advantage is that we’re using fruit that you can’t get elsewhere in the country.”
Now, Yudkin said, he’s hoping to use FoodHub to connect with some of the more than 100 Northwest retailers actively looking for wholesale products on the site.
“A really good market for us is farm stands,” he said. “When the owners taste the soda they recognize the quality of the fruit because they know fruit. … And there’s a sense of pride because we’re a local, family-owned business.” (more…)
