Schilling Cider launched Vida Maté, a line of non-alcoholic yerba maté beverages, earlier this month that CEO Colin Schilling believes has the potential to outsell its hard cider portfolio.
Vida Maté launched March 1 with three flavors: Lemon Mint, Mango Lime and Blackberry Lemonade. The “super beverage” is available in 16 oz. single-serve cans, with 160mg of total caffeine and 25 calories per serving.
“[Yerba maté] is a South American super beverage,” Schilling told Brewbound. “So it’s the leaves of the yerba maté plant – leaves and twigs – and when you make a tea out of that, not only do you get caffeine, but you get a bunch of other vitamins and adaptogens as well that create this really amazing caffeine formula.”
Schilling said the company has been discussing a non-alcoholic yerba maté for more than five years. In 2021, Schilling launched a 4.4% ABV hard yerba maté line under a new Waveline brand, along with hard seltzers and hard lemonades.
Produced at Schilling Cider’s facility in Auburn, Washington, Vida Maté is made with between 11% and 20% real fruit juice (compared to the single digit percentages of its competitors) and a proprietary blend of Vitamin B12, L-Theanine and GABA, which creates a “caffeine delivery system” that gives a consumer energy and focus, but without the caffeine crash or stress, Schilling said.
“If you look at the cider category versus the functional beverage caffeine space, the total market for the caffeine space is massive,” Schilling told Brewbound. “I hate to say this, because I love cider and that’s obviously my passion, but I do think that Vida Maté could one day outsell it in terms of [what’s] from our portfolio.
“I’m bullish on both, though,” he continued. “Our cider alone, we’re up 50% year-to-date, while basically everybody else is flat or down in terms of the beer/cider category nationally.”
The majority of Vida Maté’s ingredients are sourced from the Northwest, with the exception of the yerba maté itself, which comes from a co-op in Brazil that uses yerba maté plants to combat deforestation and erosion. Because the beverage doesn’t require fermentation, it’s a “synergistic product” with Schilling’s bev-alc production, that can be made while waiting for cider tanks to ferment. The caffeine in the beverage comes solely from the yerba maté, rather than a synthetic caffeine or extract.
“You’re inherently buying a product that is coming from South America, and has a lot of really cool culture around it, and we didn’t want to step on the toes of that,” Schilling said. “You’re working with something that’s obviously coming from a different part of the world, you’re respecting that culture, you’re paying a fair price, but then you’re putting your own spin on that and you’re creating your own beverage, and you’re branding in a way that’s authentic to you.
“So we did some really amazing photography to start with this, and it’s got a very South American, tropical plant vibe going on, but then it’s literally Mount Rainier in the background,” he continued. “So it’s recognizing where the product came from, but saying this is Northwest now.”
While Vida Maté is produced at Schilling’s facility, the brand is separate from Schilling Cider, with its own website and branding. Schilling Cider’s salesforce will help with marketing the new product, but a new brand manager division is also being created dedicated solely to Vida Maté, Schilling said.
“I do think we have a really authentic story to tell as to why a cider maker can make really good yerba maté, but at the same time, we want to be really careful about not crossing the lines at all between alcohol and non-alcohol products,” he continued. “And it’s also a different set of buyers. You’re talking to very different people on very different levels, so it just didn’t make sense to combine it.”
Schilling is beginning construction this week on a 90,000 sq. ft. production facility expansion, which will consolidate its existing three Auburn, Washington, warehouses into one building. Expanding off of its existing facility, the new space will contain six new 800-barrel tanks, a new canning line, key upgrades to the cidery’s cleaning and maintenance operations, and more storage space for finished products and cans.
Schilling will also use its existing distribution network to distribute Vida Maté. The beverage will first be available in Oregon and Washington through a continued partnership with Columbia Distributing, with a few placements in Alaska and Idaho through existing chain partnerships.
“Columbia, they’re very excited about this as well, because it’s not going to compete with the Schilling side; it’s a completely new product,” Schilling said. “[When] we provide maximum value for our distributors, this allows them to go out and get new space.”
With distribution in 20 states, Schilling was the No. 5 cider brand nationally in 2021 in off-premise multi-outlet and convenience (through December 19), according to the market research firm IRI.
The company has partnered with Reyes Beer Division in California for continued expansion in the state this year, and has doubled-down on its partnership with Crescent Crown Distribution in Arizona and Hayden Beverage Company in Idaho and Montana to continue pushing into other markets.
“Rather than be a company that’s going to go 50 states an inch deep and just try to sell highspots across the whole country, we would much rather be a company that provides a lot of great products for our relatively small distributor base,” Schilling said. “I think that’s the right key to success for a company like ours that doesn’t have the resources to be a Truly or a White Claw overnight and go national and spend the kind of dollars it takes to make that realistic.”
Schilling is also looking to expand its employee base this year, with several open positions available in both production and sales and marketing.
While Schilling has promised his team there will be “no new projects” for the time being after the Yerba Maté launch, he recently helped pass a law in Washington that allows spirits and beer to be produced under one roof, and is open to the potentially creating ready-to-drink canned cocktails (RTDs) and other beyond beer innovations.
“That’s one of the really cool things about getting to the size we are as a company is that it allows us to play in multiple categories at the same time successfully,” Schilling said. “I’m all about the innovation and pushing the boundaries, and now I get to do that in two different categories.”