Why Zevia

I founded Zevia with my great friend, Ian Eisenberg, and my wife, Jessica. Ian was the president and founder of a mobile content software company, and Jessica and I had a law firm. None of us had beverage or dietary supplement experience.

In 2005, the three of us were fairly active, participating in local races (like 10ks, half marathons, and triathlons). Jessica and I ate very healthy, but nonetheless Jessica was consuming several Diet Cokes per day. She complained of headaches and lethargy, which can be caused by aspartame (the sweetener in Diet Coke). Jessica’s diet cola habit really bothered me because I want to live forever with her, and I thought aspartame or Splenda could lead to many issues that might shorten her life. Ian had a similar addiction to diet soda and wanted a solution.

We learned about stevia, an herb many times sweeter than sugar which is native to the South America rainforest . It’s all natural, tastes great, zero calories, zero on the glycemic index, and healthy. When we heard about stevia, we didn’t believe it could be real because otherwise it would be in diet sodas.

We spent time researching stevia. We learned where to procure the highest quality stevia available. We learned the FDA allows stevia as an ingredient in a dietary supplement. We also learned that stevia is difficult to incorporate into liquid form because it often has a bitter aftertaste.

Ian, Jes, and I spent about 18 months and lots of money before we perfected the delicious taste that is today’s Zevia – Nature’s Answer to Diet Soda. We went through a lot of bad prototypes to get here, and to create Zevia we had to have a new formula invented. We now have a patent pending on the formula, so unless someone is going to infringe our anticipated patent, you cannot get a taste as good and natural as Zevia except from us.

We had to make Zevia. I had to cure Jessica’s diet soda habit, and she had to get me to stop harassing her about it. Now, Jessica and Ian drink nothing but Zevia, and we have succeeded in bringing a choice to soda fanatics everywhere.

That’s the quick story. The three of us eat, drink, and sleep Zevia. We are working hard to bring it to every town in the U.S., and then worldwide. We want everybody to kick the diet soda habit with Zevia!

-Derek