Margaret Rivers newest tonic bottles beetroot power
Andrew and Bettina Pretsel are in brand new territory this week, with the first batch of their new product, RAD Tonic, rolling off the production line at the Margaret River Beverage Company headquarters.
The tonic, a sparkling fermented beetroot drink inoculated with probiotics and bearing a brilliant deep purple colour, is 100 per cent organic and made from all WA ingredients.
“All the vitamins and minerals in the tonic have been certified by a laboratory in Perth,” explained Andrew Pretsel of the intensive creation process, which saw him complete a port graduate course at Curtin University in food science and technology.
“We had wicking beds at home and we started growing our own vegetables, one of which was beetroot, and I wanted to find out a bit more about the benefits of all the different vegies.
“We discovered that one of the benefits of beetroot is nitrate, which is really critical for energy delivery, and gives you higher levels of energy, performance and endurance.
“Doing further research, we found that youve also got vitamin C and iron and magnesium which are all really critical for stamina.
“When you start drinking RAD, theres an adjustment as your body adapts to the probiotics and the absorption of all the nutrients in the drink as well as your food,” he said.
“We could have just made straight beetroot juice, but we looked at fermentation – a process that extracts nutrients from food. Instead of relying on wild fermentation, I decided that it was important to actually put the specific bacteria in the drink instead of just relying on bacteria in the environment, theres more control over the product and we know exactly what is in there.”
The process of creating the tonic has been a local affair, with son Lachlan employed at the Margaret River Beverage Co last year opening the door to the Pretsels working with owner Bernard Ryan to reach the bottling stage.
“Bernard and the team have been incredibly helpful, imparting wisdom and direction when needed; its also so great to be able to be here in Margaret River bottling our first batch, its a great facility,” said Bettina Pretsel.
Daughter Antoinette was also on hand on Friday as the first boxes left the factory, which Mrs Pretsel said was indicative of family involvement.
“We had a vineyard in Manjimup until 2015, which supplied grapes to Evans and Tate, and we have also been doing the pickled walnuts since 2010, the kids have always helped out and its great to have them involved again.”
RAD Tonic is available at Blue Ginger, The Foodroom, Riverfresh IGA, Olio Bello, Annapurna Health Foods, Margaret River Rec Centre and Margaret River F45. For more information visit radtonic.com
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Margaret River Mail
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