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About Freshies
The Freshies Story...
 Freshies
started in Telluride, Colorado in 1994. A
chef (Ian Gustin) and a bartender (Colin
Wells) created a Bloody Mary Mix that became
famous throughout the ski towns of
Colorado. In 1995, the two began bottling
the mix under the "Bridal Veil Bloody Mary
Mix" label. Bridal Veil is the waterfall at
the end of Telluride's box canyon;
incidentally, the name "Freshies" originally
referred to skiing fresh powder turns, but
today represents the fresh ingredients in
all of the products. Their product sold in
liquor stores and specialty shops, and a
company was born.
In 1997,
the pair decided to extend their line of
non-alcoholic mixers using fresh ingredients
and no artificial preservatives. They
rented a production facility in Denver,
changed the name and labels of their
products to "Freshies", and rolled out 5 new
flavors. The best seller, by far, was the
Fresh Lime Margarita Mix. Gustin and Wells
felt that the other mixers on the shelves
were too syrupy-sweet, so they used fresh
lime juice, lemon juice, and a splash of OJ
to round out the flavors. They were
committed to not using corn syrup in any of
their margarita mixes, and today the taste
profile of fresh squeezed juice and
granulated sugar translates to the entire
line.
The
cocktail mix category accounts for
approximately $750 million per year, with
over 50% of that consumed in the US.
Margarita mix is the number one seller, with
Bloody Mary a distant second.
Sweet-n-Sour mix (Lemon Squeeze) is nearly
equal to Bloody Mary sales. The Nouveau
cocktails--Cosmo, Mojito, Appletini (by the way, any green Appletini mix isn't considered all natural, since there isn't a FDA approved natural green coloring for liquids) ,
etc.--are in the lowest percentage, but they
are quickly gaining shelf prominence; there
is also very little competition in those
flavors.
Freshies mixes fall into the
following order of product popularity:
Margarita - Fresh Lime,
Bloody Mary -
Original, Mojito, Lemon Squeeze Sweet -n- Sour, followed by all other
flavors.
The newest Freshies flavors were rolled out in September 2006.
Tangerita™, Pomegranate Mojito,
and Cosmopolitan have been well received and quickly gaining shelf space.
Freshies vs. The Competition...
Freshies
Mixes have several advantages over the
competition. Freshies contains all-natural
ingredients and do not contain any
preservatives. Freshies mixes use fresh lime
juice, fresh lemon juice, orange juice,
granulated whole cane sugar, pure agave
nectar and fresh herbs and spices including:
fresh garlic, onion, dill and horseradish.
For instance, Freshies chefs actually peel and chop fresh horseradish, onions, and garlic just prior to being used in the recipe.
Freshies creates a shelf stable product which does not use artificial preservatives, flavors, colors, or stabilizers.
The mixes are made with
fresh ingredients, from scratch, so they
taste that way. Here at Freshies, we manufacture all of our own mixes which gives us complete control over the quality of the final product.
Most
other major mix brands on the shelf that
could be considered competition to Freshies
lists High Fructose Corn Syrup as the 2nd
highest volume ingredient- the first being
water. High Fructose Corn Syrup is used as
an inexpensive source for sweetening the
mixes, but results in an over-sweet taste.
This sweet taste must be countered by adding
larger quantities of artificial flavors and
additives. Additionally, the syrup leaves a
very distinct after-taste. Most other mixes
use artificial colors and preservatives.
Freshies appeals to the consumer who is
concerned with quality, taste and value.
The true connoisseur of mixes.
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