Expo East 2022: Swoon Finding Sweet Spot in Zero-Sugar

They say when you have lemons make lemonade, but crafting a viable zero-sugar version has proven a particularly tricky recipe to crack for ambitious drink formulators. That makes Los Angeles-based Swoon all the more notable, as co-founders Jennifer Ross and Cristina Ros Blankfein have turned their monkfruit-sweetened simple syrup brand into a zero-sugar RTD platform offering lemonades, iced teas and, as of this summer, matcha. 

Speaking with BevNET at Expo East 2022 in September, Ross explained how the brand’s approach toward the market has informed its product innovation strategy, making gains with Gen Z through its recent collaboration with Chamberlain Coffee, growing the brand in mainstream vs. natural channels, and why Swoon is phasing out its simple syrup line.