By Ian Neubauer
Bionade, the world’s first non-alcoholic drink made from the fermentation of natural ingredients, is now available in Australia.
Bionade is a natural carbonated beverage with no artificial additives that follows the purity requirements traditionally used to make beers. In recent years Bionade has become a European sensation and the recipient of nine European product and beverage awards.
Bionade was created by German brewer Dieter Leipold who, after realising that demand for craft beer in Germany was waning, spent eight years and millions of dollars looking for a way to convert the sugar that normally becomes alcohol into gluconic acid.
Gluconic acid is a sweet, nutritionally valuable compound that reacts with water to create gluconates like calcium and magnesium. The result is a tasty energy drink jam-packed with vitamins and minerals.
Bionade is packaged in a 330ml plastic bottle and comes in four flavours: elderberry, lychee, herbs and ginger-orange.
Bionade is distributed in Australian by Jolly Products at a wholesale price of $2.20 per bottle.