A Milwaukee-based craft mixer company has received national recognition. Top Note Tonic was awarded for many of its products including Classic Tonic Water, Bitter Lemon and Sparkling Grapefruit Soda. Company Founders Mary Pellettieri and Noah Swanson speak on the challenge of operating during the pandemic and also say that they’re working to meet the growing demand in both craft cocktails and non-alcoholic drinks.
When speaking on the pandemic challenges, Swanson says, "To me, as a beverage business owner, just availability of raw materials has been a real challenge that is only now starting to settle down. And it forced us to be able to pivot into different ingredients. And thankfully, we were able to formulate that all in-house and do that as availability dried up."
What makes Top Note successful is their commitment to creating quality products with quality ingredients. "So people are looking for more quality and realizing that traditional mixers have the same kind of problems as traditional soda does... And I think that we're right along with that," says Swanson.
The support and recent recognition is well received by the Top Note team. Pellettieri says, "Those awards are amazing. These judges are not folks that are easily swayed and they are done, they are tasted blind. They taste the products for it's goodness."
Seeing people enjoy the product and use them in creative ways is also rewarding. "And we always say we invent so you can create. We love the process of inventing these ingredients, these flavors, and we love seeing folks kind of discover a creation that they can do with them," says Pellettieri.
Top Notch retailers can be found here.
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