Real fruit
Juice and purée for color, body and taste — not flavor drops doing all the work.
Our story
Nana did not start Sodakick.
She started the drink.
In Auckland in the 1970s, Fiona’s mum Irene mixed fruit, honey, apple cider vinegar and water at home. Fiona grew up drinking it.
Before Sidekick, there was Nana’s shrub.
A shrub is an old-school fruit drink built around fruit, sweetness and vinegar.
Irene’s version used fruit, honey and apple cider vinegar — then water. She worked in a health food shop and was making drinks this way long before it became a trend. At home it was a glass in Auckland, not a brand.
Fiona grew up on that sour-sweet drink. That is the beginning.
Three generations. One very good drink.
The recipe did not come from a branding workshop. It came through a family.
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Irene
Made the original shrub
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Fiona
Grew up drinking it
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Fiona + Rogan
Made it sparkling
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Sidekick
The modern version
Why Sidekick had to exist
The answer wasn’t something new.
It was something Fiona already knew.
Fiona was looking for a soda she actually enjoyed drinking. Ordinary sugary ones were too sweet. The stevia-sweetened alternatives left an aftertaste she disliked.
Then she recognised she already knew another way to build flavor — from Nana’s fruit, honey and apple cider vinegar drink. With her son Rogan, she started wondering what that old idea could become with bubbles.
We kept the good bit.
Then added bubbles.
Sodakick isn’t Nana’s shrub poured into a can. It’s the idea carried forward.
The core stayed: real fruit, honey and apple cider vinegar. What changed was everything around them — lighter, sparkling, fruit-forward, with just enough vinegar to keep the finish bright.
Some things weren’t worth changing.
Nana used fruit, honey and apple cider vinegar. Those three ideas stayed at the heart of Sodakick.
New Zealand honey
The sweetener the shrub always had. Multifloral New Zealand honey gives Sodakick its softer, rounder sweetness.
Apple cider vinegar
A splash for a clean, grown-up finish. Brightness, not a pickle shot.
No stevia. No erythritol. No cane sugar.
The shortcuts we left out — so the drink still tastes like something you’d finish.
The drink began in Auckland.
Sidekick grew up in Wānaka.
Irene’s kitchen was Auckland in the 1970s. Sodakick’s modern home is Wānaka — Southern Lakes outdoors, launched in 2023.
Place matters for who we are now. It is not where the recipe began.
What began as something Irene made for her family became something Fiona made with hers.
A mother who grew up with the drink. A son building the next version with her.
By now you know where the drink came from. Fiona and Rogan are the ones taking it forward.
Fiona Tomlinson
Co-founder
Grew up on Nana’s shrub. Came back to fruit, honey and vinegar when modern soda wasn’t doing it for her.
Rogan Tomlinson
Co-founder
Fiona’s son and Sodakick’s other half. Helps take the family idea from Wānaka to cans, fridges and shelves around New Zealand.
Irene
Nana’s name was Irene.
Fiona lost her mum to breast cancer. Today, that part of Irene’s story lives on in our support for Breast Cancer Cure, including our limited Watermelon collaboration.
But Sodakick began somewhere simpler: with the drink she made at home.
Home, and who we stand with.
Wānaka is home. A quieter note on the people and causes close to us.
Grow Wānaka
Community garden & food resilience, Wānaka
The Upper Clutha community garden and education space. We donate cans and show up.
Paw Justice
Animal welfare, NZ
A piece of every can supports Paw Justice — rescue dogs and cats have always been part of our family.