UK glass packaging manufacturer Beatson Clark has completed a production run for over 200,000 unique glass bottles for Eager Drinks’ new mixer range – Cold Brew Tonics.
Eager, founded in 2007, approached Beatson Clark last year to design its first glass bottle drinks line. All the brand’s other soft drinks, including its signature cloudy apple juice, are packaged using cardboard.
South Yorkshire-based Beatson Clark designed and produced a 200ml white flint glass bottle. The brief was to produce a container which looked modern and contemporary but had a traditional and vintage feel to it.
The container is heavier than a standard bottle in a move to give a high-quality, premium feel in line with the range’s intended consumer market.
Eager Drinks founder Ed Rigg said: “Owing to the fact that Cold Brew Tonics is our first range packaged using glass, we had strict criteria for its look, feel and quality to ensure it was in keeping with our brand and commitment on sustainability.
“We wanted a bottle which used recycled glass in some way and wanted it to look contemporary and modern yet traditional to the touch. We didn’t want an off-the-shelf design. We wanted a bottle which was going to make an impression in a competitive market.”
Jonathan Clark, account manager at Beatson Clark, added: “It’s been a pleasure to work with the Eager team from concept right through to production. As Ed has found out, what we offer in terms of service is only matched by the quality of the product we make.
“For an established drinks company entering the competitive mixer market for the first time, the packaging is just as important as the quality of what’s inside. The drinks are different to anything else on the market owing to the unique production process, and the packaging reflects that.”
Each flavour in the range – tonic, light tonic, smoked tonic, lemonade, ginger beer, artisan lemonade and club soda – is produced by packing bunches of dried fruit peel into hessian bags and placing the oil-rich rinds in cold water for 24 hours before the product is carbonated.
Rigg said: “Each mixer has a purer and deeper flavour than any other mixer drink on the market, so we wanted to make sure the taste is preserved for as long as possible. That’s why we chose glass, because it does that better than any other form of packaging and it’s 100% recyclable.”
The range launched last month in the UK and is now on sale in bars, hotels and restaurants.
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