Obi Probiotic Soda is the vision of Santa Cruz, CA denizen, Ben Goodwin, who dreamed of a beverage that could bridge the gap between the niche - “real” health market and the mainstream consumer food market. Knowing that the bubbly, refreshing taste of soda runs deep in America’s DNA, Ben decided to put his purist approach to product formulation to work and developed an incredibly healthy and delic
ious version of America’s beverage sweetheart. Ben’s fascination with the “gut-brain” interrelationship, a scientific model showing that the gut influences the brain and vice versa, turned his focus towards the study of probiotics. After experimenting with hundreds of probiotic ferments, he developed a proprietary combination of water kefir strains that proved to be highly stable and beneficial. This exclusive ferment became the basis of Obi probiotic soda. As a discerning flavor connoisseur, Ben was ambitiously driven to create a functional soda that satisfies taste buds and incites fanaticism. For this reason, Ben explored hundreds of different flavor pairings and even developed a proprietary stevia sweetener that does not have that bitter after-taste detested by many consumers. He perfected four original, low-sugar, flavor varieties: Meyer Lemon Lime, Organic Rootbeer, Tart Cherry and Vanilla Bean, Valencia Organic Grapefruit (with many additional flavors and line extensions in the works). It took Ben five long years to perfect the Obi formulation. With the help of his team, Obi Probiotic Soda was introduced to market in August 2014.
