The honey-sweetened, real-fruit, apple cider vinegar soda. Less sugar than regular soda, none of the artificial sweeteners. Here's why people switch — and stay.
Most "healthy" sodas didn't work for our family. Stevia tasted bitter and chemical. Diet sodas were undrinkable. The sodas that called themselves natural were still sweetened with cane sugar and stevia, just dressed up.
So we made our own — sweetened with New Zealand honey, made with real fruit, with a kick of apple cider vinegar. No stevia. No artificial sweeteners. No cane sugar.
If that sounds like the soda you've been looking for, we made it for you.
— Fiona & Rogan, founders
The category has changed fast. Here's what actually matters when you're reading the back of a can.
Aspartame, sucralose, and acesulfame potassium are common in diet and "zero sugar" sodas. Many people prefer to avoid them.
Cheap, ubiquitous in regular soda, and the main reason a regular can has 27g+ of sugar.
Erythritol and xylitol can cause bloating and GI issues for sensitive stomachs. Recent cardiovascular research is worth watching.
Phosphoric acid gives traditional cola its bite at a cost to enamel. Caramel colour, Red 40, Yellow 5 — none of it needs to be there.
A catch-all phrase. The cleanest sodas name the actual fruit.
Real juice or purée, not "natural flavour." It's the difference between tasting fruit and tasting fruit-flavoured.
Under 10g per serving is the editorial benchmark most BFY guides now use (Sidekick comes in around 8.7g per 250ml can). Lower is better — but not at the cost of artificial sweeteners.
Honey, real fruit, a small amount of cane sugar. Stevia and monk fruit are common but divisive — some people taste them as bitter or chemical.
Adds a clean, grown-up bite without phosphoric acid. Increasingly common in better sodas for good reason.
If you can't pronounce half of it, the soda is doing too much.
Sidekick is built around these principles. Real fruit, New Zealand honey, apple cider vinegar, sparkling water. Nine ingredients, all recognisable.
Just New Zealand honey, real fruit, apple cider vinegar, and sparkling water.
Not all sodas are created equal. Here's what sets us apart from the rest.
Honey is one of the oldest sweeteners on earth. It tastes like real food because it is real food. We use multi-floral New Zealand honey — gentler than manuka, complex enough to carry flavour without aftertaste.
Most sodas — even the new wave of better-for-you brands — list "natural flavours" on the back. We use real fruit juice and purée. You can taste the difference. So can your kids.
Traditional sodas use phosphoric acid for that sharp finish. We use apple cider vinegar instead — small enough that you don't taste it as vinegar, present enough to give Sidekick a clean, adult edge.
Up to a third of people experience stevia as intensely bitter or metallic — it's a real genetic difference in how taste receptors process certain stevia compounds. Our co-founder Fiona is one of them. That's why Sidekick exists.
We weren't going to make claims without showing the work. Here's how Sidekick compares to other better-for-you sodas — head to head on sugar, sweeteners, ingredients, and what we leave out.
| Attribute | Sidekick Soda | Prebiotic Soda | ACV Soda | Kombucha |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| What's in it | ||||
| Sweetened with | New Zealand honey + real fruit | Cane sugar + stevia | Cane sugar + stevia | Cane sugar (fermented) |
| Sugar (per 250ml) | ~9g | 1–6g | ~3g | 2–8g |
| Calories (per 250ml) | ~45 | 25–35 | ~18 | 15–50 |
| Clean label | ||||
| Honey-sweetened Sidekick is the only soda in this comparison sweetened with honey rather than cane sugar, stevia, or fermented sugars. | ✓ | ✗ | ✗ | ✗ |
| Real fruit (not "natural flavours") | ✓ | Some | Some | ✗ |
| No artificial sweeteners | ✓ | Varies | Varies | ✓ |
| Drink experience | ||||
| Apple cider vinegar | ✓ | ✗ | ✓ | ✗ |
| Caffeine-free | ✓ | Varies | Varies | ✗ |
| Consistent taste, not fermented | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ | ✗ |
Values per 250ml — Sidekick's standard can size. Competitor values are typical for each category; specific products vary. Prebiotic sodas, ACV sodas, and kombuchas are typically sold in 330–473ml formats.
Sorted by the four things people tell us most often.
August 2025Selected from over 1,800 product entries, Sidekick Soda Cherry was named a finalist in the Beverages category of the 5th annual Startup CPG Shelfie Awards.Read article: Sidekick Cherry named a 2025 Shelfie Awards finalist
March 12, 2025Featured at Expo West 2025 for innovative use of multi-floral New Zealand honey as a natural sweetener.
July 2, 2024Sidekick Soda named among better-for-you soda brands leading the healthy beverage movement.
October 31, 2024Sidekick Soda is not a copycat — it's a new, artisanal vision of what soda can be.
Sidekick was born from a problem most healthy sodas refuse to solve.
Our co-founder Fiona is one of the millions of people who experience stevia as intensely bitter and chemical-tasting — a real genetic difference in how taste receptors process certain compounds in stevia leaf. For her, most "healthy" sodas weren't disappointing. They were undrinkable.
So Fiona — already an award-winning drinks maker behind The Damson Collection, with World's Best Fruit Liqueur (2020) and back-to-back Best New Zealand Fruit Liqueur titles — set out to build the soda her family would actually drink. Her son Rogan joined her, and Sidekick launched in 2024.
The recipe: New Zealand honey, real fruit, apple cider vinegar, sparkling water. No stevia. No cane sugar. No artificial anything.
A year later, Sidekick is on the shelves at Erewhon in Los Angeles, stocked across New Zealand and Australia, and Cherry was named a finalist in the Shelfie Awards by Startup CPG — Beverages, 2025.
Real fruit. Real honey. Real soda. The way it should be.
