(ABC4 NEWS – SALT LAKE CITY, UT) “People love bubble. Everyone loves bubbles. Bobelo is basically the first carbonated drink made from powder and a bottle that just has water and ice in it. We use all those principals of science of how to create that volcano that you did in elementary school. We wanted to create that in a bottle.”
Think about that quote from Stephen Colvin, Founder/C.E.O. of Bobelo, for a minute. One special bottle, water, ice and their “magic power” can give you your bubble fix.
What prompted Colvin to come up with the idea? He told me; “The need kind of arose from my previous job. I was an executive in the beverage industry and a really good company. One day and I was doing a kind of retreat to get centered and a little more peace in my life. I got to a waterfall and at the waterfall I found my bottles, my plastic bottles. and cans all over the place. …I kind of had this aha moment that the industry that I was in. that I was helping grow, was not very sustainable for the earth. I wanted to see if there was a way to make it better. “
After explaining his “why” to me, the next natural question is “how?”. Colvin explained; “We figured out that we could create it with powder and using a pressurized vessel that combines it with water that makes carbonation… makes the magic per sea. We have patents pending on both our bottles and how they control the pressure in the carbonization created and we also have patents pending on the powder itself and how it makes carbonization.”
A lot of my “Utah Success Stories” turn into a combination of “How It’s Made” and “Dirty Jobs.” I rolled up my sleeves at PRC CoPack to help package Bobelo. I scrubbed, sanitized, and got all my protective gear on and was led to a machine that packages the powder into single serve packages. The machine was impressive enough that we weren’t allowed to film everything. Let’s just say it was a lot faster than trying to do this at your kitchen table.
They have four flavors. Mountain berries. Lavender lemonade. Tropical bliss sounds like my favorite, and orchard breeze. I had the honor of packaging their orchard breeze flavor carbonation packets.
I wasn’t expecting to learn Bobelo’s formula, but I did ask Colvin what was in their product. “We use nothing but natural products. We use minerals that are good for you. We use food grade acids that are good for you. We use botanical and fruit extracts that are actually from those fruits and we put them in there and that’s all we use. We don’t have any artificial colors. We don’t have any artificial flavors. We have no artificial sweeteners. We don’t have sugar in there, so these are actually diabetic friendly. Keto friendly. Paleo friendly. Whatever you look at. We did that so people could be healthy, but still get their bubble kick.”
I found out the story about the “why” and the “how” but not it was time for the “what” … specifically, “what does it taste like.”
JJ Steadman, VP Marketing for Bobelo, walked me through the demonstration. To make your Bobelo, you’ll remove the spout. Add your ice water to the line. Secure that. Remove the cap. Pour it in. Quick little shake. Wait two minutes and your carbonated Bobelo beverage will be ready.
DOUG: My first taste of Bobelo. What flavor is this?
JJ: Orchard breeze.
DOUG: Orchard Breeze. Here we go. Bottoms up. Woah, that really is bubbly. That’s awesome. Ahh.
With another Utah Success Story, and Bobelo, I’m Doug Jessop, ABC4 News.
I’m blessed to do a number of news story series that air on ABC4 News. www.ABC4.com It is also my pleasure to have a number of my stories appear on various Nexstar Media Group TV station websites.
*You can also see my positive business profiles called “Utah Success Stories” every Sunday in the ABC4 News at 10 p.m. and online at www.ABC4.com/Success
*Everyone has a Story. Stories have Power. They help us Understand each other. “Jessop’s Journal” features in-depth, on-demand interviews not normally available in the news. A new segment is published every week at www.abc4.com/journal .
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I strongly feel that “stories have power”. Chances are that if you are going through something, that someone else probably has as well. The shared experiences we humans have can help each other. That my friend makes the point that stories “help us understand each other.”
You don’t have to agree with everyone, but in my opinion, if people would take more time getting to knowing more about others and where they are coming from, we just might find out that we have more similarities than differences.
A big shout out goes to my collaborator, Ed Wilets, who does a great job as my videographer/editor for all my stories. Your feedback is always welcome at DJessop@abc4.com
Thank you for watching, reading, liking, subscribing and all that other fun stuff. I’m Doug Jessop, ABC4 News.
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