After discontinuing its Blackberry flavor three years ago due to a Pacific Northwest heatwave that abruptly spiked the price of berries, Spindrift today announced the flavor’s return.
The Newton, Massachusetts-based sparkling water maker will bring back a small batch, limited release of Blackberry exclusively available on its website beginning next month for $30 per 24-pack. The move comes as part of Spindrift’s ongoing mission to orient itself as a “total sparkling water company” playing in all areas of the category. The past few years have seen the company expand its portfolio with the introduction of lemonades, Spiked seltzers, ciders, new sparkling iced tea flavors, and mocktails.
We spoke with Spindrift’s SVP of operations, Brett Atkinson, about why now was the right time to bring back Blackberry, the company’s outlook on the increasingly saturated sparkling water category, and how the team approaches innovation for both its Sparkling and Spiked product lines.
This conversation has been lightly edited for clarity and space.
What was behind the decision to bring back the Blackberry flavor after sunsetting it in 2021? Do you plan on making the flavor a seasonal offering?
When the Pacific Northwest experienced a historic heatwave in 2021 that devastated the nation’s blackberry crop, the cost of berries spiked to record highs, making it difficult to find enough quality berries to make Spindrift Blackberry. This resulted in the tough decision to sunset the flavor from our offering.
For three years, our team continuously tracked the availability and cost of berries, carefully tasted and evaluated the quality, and hoped we could one day bring it back. Our product relies on the quality of the ingredients that we can source from nature and the supply of blackberries has returned, but not to pre-heatwave conditions. The decision to bring Spindrift Blackberry back in a limited-release batch was based on what was finally available.
We will continue to keep an eye on the quality and cost of the berries to see if a seasonal offering of the flavor might be possible again.
How do you decide where to distribute a limited offering? For Blackberry, why did you choose the Spindrift website – is that a channel you are looking to develop?
The Spindrift website is where we create and offer the most unique brand experiences for our Drifter community. This includes merch, first access to new flavors and limited release offerings like Blackberry.
How does Spindrift approach innovation and what does the R&D process look like? Does strategy differ between the brand’s original and Spiked lines?
We have a community of loyal fans we call Drifters, and we are always looking to them to inspire us on what to make (or bring back) next. Our innovation team, led by Jon Silverman, crafts the recipes for flavors that address what our Drifters are looking for in their next sparkling water. With the many different fruits and real ingredients available, our sourcing team is constantly partnering with them to source and taste the next delicious drink.
Our strategy for both Sparkling and Spiked is the same. At the heart of everything we do, we believe the best taste comes directly from nature, and our team has spent a decade perfecting our sourcing, handling, and manufacturing process to honor the integrity and taste of the fruit throughout production. That’s why we say Spindrift is ‘proudly made the hard way’ — we have a best-in-class sensory program that ensures all ingredients meet the brand’s high standards throughout the process. There is a dedicated team that tastes, rates, and qualifies hundreds of samples of raw materials and must approve every batch of Spindrift before it is released to consumers.
How do you see the sparkling category evolving and how does Spindrift fit into this growth? Is there any whitespace that still exists?
We believe there is still a lot of [opportunity] within familiar beverage categories that we can bring our real ingredient perspective to. Spindrift really challenges how good a beverage can be, with no added sugars, low calories, and a delicious taste that only real ingredients can deliver. We hope Spindrift can address every beverage occasion and need.