Tucked away down small winding Hereford country roads lies Blue Sky Botanics – a hybrid farm and factory site which is the botanical extract manufacturer behind Dash Water’s iconic refreshing taste.

Unassuming from the outside, it is unlikely passers-by would stumble across the facility, yet the 200-acre organic farm is home to a factory that contains a wonderful array of machinery and equipment that transforms Dash’s wonky fruit into ready-to-infuse extracts that flavours the brand’s refreshing drinks.

This is where Dash took Grocery Gazette for a tour of the process behind the fizzy water, which has added a refreshing twist to the soft drinks category

Photo: The 200-acres Botanic extract farm in Hereford

Dash Water is a fruit-infused sparkling water brand that is at the forefront of a new wave of healthy drinks.

Started by co-founders Jack Scott and Alex Wright at the former’s Battersea, London flat in 2017, the pair – who both came from farming backgrounds, with Scott’s family having been a potato supplier to McCain’s – worked hard to nail their fast-growing soft drink.

“We spent probably eight or nine months trying to can sparkling water,” says Scott. “It was pretty upsetting at the time because we just couldn’t get the product into a can. But I love that that experience is always part of the DNA of the brand, and we can now look back at these stories really fondly.”

Dash, Scott explains, was born from trying to solve problems and identify gaps in the soft drinks market.

“What we think is really special about Dash is the simplicity of it,” he says.

First, Dash exclusively uses wonky fruit and vegetables that others – brands, retailers, and manufacturers – say no to. Whether this is because they’ve been deemed too unattractive for supermarkets to sell, such as curved cucumbers and bobbly strawberries, or come from surplus production, Dash’s intervention stops crops from being wasted.

Scott explains that this was first inspired by a conversation with a supplier about the food waste behind growing produce.

Scott and Wright with wonky cucumbers

“He said his grade ones and twos sell, but grade threes and fours didn’t have a home. This really struck a chord with Alex and I, who really believed that we could take those cucumbers off him – which were slightly overweight, have blemishes on them, or would have grown in a funny way – to infuse to our water. So that’s how Dash came to be made with wonky fruit.”

However, Dash also stands out from other brands in the soft drinks category as it contains no sugar, sweeteners or calories.

“Traditional soft drinks are full of sugar and more recently sweetener. And we really, really think that sweetener – both natural and artificial – is the devil because of the health risks associated with it,” Scott says.

We headed to Wimbledon to find out whether the public know about aspartame the artificial sweetener used in some diet soft drinks… #wimbledon #viral #ditchdiet

♬ original sound – Dash

He points out that the average person consumes 50% more than the recommended daily allowance of sweetener. Meanwhile official bodies are starting to acknowledge the impact, with the World Health Organization (WHO) advising against using sweeteners due to health risks like type 2 diabetes.

“We’re disrupting the drinks market which is currently dominated by high sugar and artificially treated product,” says Scott. “All of our drinks are zero calories and no sugar or sweetener. And it’s made with three simple ingredients which is water bubbles, and wonky fruit infusion.”

“I think those are the reasons that set us apart from other soft drinks.”

There are of course other unique selling points to Dash. For example, the fact it is B Corp certified and endeavours to be as sustainable as possible, not only by tackling food waste but by using fully recyclable aluminium cans and operating as a carbon-neutral business. Its tagline, “Finally, a drink to feel good about,” encapsulates its mission to be transparent, refreshing, and different.

Photo: Dash’s marketing push in recent months. In left photo, Dash Lime, Mango and Raspberry flavours.

Even the packaging is refreshingly original, with its colourful cans.

“We wanted to create a brand that visually looked really nice and it’s something that people will be proud to have in their fridge or to pick up in Whole Foods or on the way back from the gym. It is really important that we had something that really stood out on shelf and had clear messaging.”

“We worked with designers who turned our name into beautiful dash mark brushstrokes, making it a fun and key asset to our brand identity.”

Dash’s range has come a long way since its made its debut in Selfridges in 2017.

In fact, speaking to Blue Sky Botanics head of food and beverage division Daniel Jones, the sheer distance the brand has come since its inception can be demonstrated through its flavour list.

Sharing a mock-up of the original scribbled list of ideas, current products such Mango, Orange or Raspberry, are notably missing. Instead are the slightly more adventurous and niche flavours such as gooseberry and lidonberry, which have not come to fruition.

The brand has very rapidly broken into the mainstream. Just seven years after it’s conception, it is now a common sight on supermarket shelves restaurants and cafes across the country with its range featuring nine different flavours.

It is stocked in grocery giants like Tesco, Sainsbury’s, Asda and Waitrose, as well as other big names, such as Wasabi, Leon, British Airways and Starbucks.

Fizzing with innovation – Dash has released two new flavours, Grapefruit and Orange, this year alone.

It’s a far cry from its first run of just 200,000 cans.

“We had 100,000 cucumber cans and 100,000 lemon cans. I remember looking at the wall of cans and thinking how on earth were we going to sell that!

“200,000 cans took us quite a while to get through but now with the brand really picking up, that one run is just a day of sales.

“We are now in approximately 15,000 stores. We’re stocked in many of the major retailers and are available in lots of quick service restaurants, as well as contract caterers, coffee shops and online.

“Our website is a big channel for us, as well as Amazon, where we’re able to get a lot of products into people’s homes. And we also have teams in the UK, Australia and France.”

And it’s success is evident – earlier this month it was named Soft Drinks Brand of the Year at the Grocer Gold Awards beating rivals, including FeverTree and Trip.

Dash has since debuted in Australia

But the fizzy drink specialist is not stopping there.

“Our aim is to become a household name and disrupt the pretty stagnant, soft drinks category that’s traditionally full of sugar or sweeteners,” begins Scott. “We believe that we’ve got the product to do that, which is cool.

“We will sell approximately 40 million cans this year and we’re hoping to grow by another 50% this year. Last year we grew by 55%,” Scott says, describing a growth trajectory that most drinks manufacturers can only dream of.

As Dash expands, so does Scott’s vision of how customers will buy it. “Currently we’re 50% direct-to-consumer,” he says, referring to the brand’s website and Amazon listings. “Its nice to have this split and then the wagon wheel of different channels. But I think the more the brand expands, the more we expect sales through impulse channels.

However, Dash is no longer a lone wolf in the world of healthy soft drinks. New products have entered the market, from start-ups such as Trip and Virtue to new ranges from market-leading brands such as Innocent’s ‘Juicy Water’ line, as health-conscious consumers shift away from sugary drinks towards an array of vitamin-infused beverages, CBD drinks, and kombucha.

This doesn’t worry Scott. “We recognise brands like Innocent, Itsu and Trip as competitors. But for us, its about keeping things really simple and creating a fun, engaging brand that people understand.”

“We think because of this beautifully simple product and with health and sustainability not going anywhere, that we will stand the test of time and continue to grow because people will realise that they should be switching out of those drinks which are full of sugar or sweetener.

“We see [competition] as a positive. The more that we can go out against the larger, traditional soft drinks, the better.

“The competition reinforces our commitment. People really want that sort of healthier, soft drink. And then our sort of continuous innovation to stay ahead with new flavours and all of our sort of sustainability initiatives,” Scott says, adding that customers can expect exciting new flavours in the very near future.

Scott and Wright at the cucumber farm

And just how far could it grow? Could Dash ever rival the established soft drink giants – the Coca Colas and Pepsis of the world?

“I don’t think I’ve ever thought about it going as big as those,” Scott muses. “I’d love the brand to be available globally. If you were to walk into a beach bar in Mexico, there’s no reason why you couldn’t have a can of Dash as well as a can of Coke. I would like if we were able to give people the opportunity to make that choice more easily.”

“I’m not naïve in the fact that Coca Cola is an amazing brand that means a lot to so many people. But I think it’s about giving people choice.

“We’ve created a simple, versatile brand that can thrive in different environments and various markets. There’s no reason why we can’t grow into a very large soft drinks brand.”