Tractor beverage Company seeks to offer healthier and sustainable alternatives to restaurants across the United States. The company is committed to reducing waste and delivering greater returns to farmers.
Tractor Beverage Company sources organic ingredients from non-GMO farms around the world. Its beverage line has 20 flavors, including Blossom’N Spice, made with orange bloom, fig and lemon, as well as Mandarin Cardamom made from citrus fruit and cardamom.
Tractor beverages are sold in major U.S. restaurants, such as Chipotle (Tayim), Jose Andres ThinkFoodGroup (Umami Burger), and Roti. The company has taken steps to lower shipping and packaging costs by partnering with restaurants instead of grocery stores.
Travis Potter is a farmer who founded Tractor Beverage. He wanted to create a healthy, sustainable company.
There was an alternative beverage for his children, one with no chemical preservatives on the ingredient list.
Potter tells Food Tank: “If we can do a great job of supplying [our] product at a competitive price and are smart about the way we do it,” Potter explains to Food Tank.
Potter’s agricultural roots are a major influence on his role in beverage manufacturing. Potter explained that his agricultural experience was instrumental in helping him discover a niche that would allow him to invent a product with fewer calories than traditional brands.
The company minimizes waste and uses only the best ingredients. Cassia bark can be found in their Root Beer flavor, while lemon peel is in their Lemonade flavor.
Potter claims that using upcycled ingredients creates a better product for consumers and increases health and wellness.
Potter also works to increase the returns of his farmer partners. He seeks to source high quality ingredients like cinnamon, cardamom & ginger which offer higher profitability for farmers while creating a better, more complex product.
Potter hopes to see farmers feel motivated to switch from conventional agriculture to organic. He believes that consumers will play an important part in this.
According to the IBISWorld latest report , soft-drink consumption in the U.S.A has decreased every year since 1995 at an average annual rate 0.8%. This is due primarily to consumer’s growing health concerns as well the increased incidence of diet-related illnesses like diabetes. Many consumers are now looking for healthier alternatives while others have cut out sugary drinks completely.
In the U.S., sugary soft drinks are the single largest source of added sugar in the American diet, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey. Excess sugary drink consumption is also associated with a range of chronic diseases including obesity, type II diabetes, heart disease, and other conditions.
They are increasingly turning to new carbonated drinks as they try to avoid traditional soda.
Potter is eager to continue developing his product and business strategies and expand restaurant partnership opportunities in light of rising demand for sugary alternatives. Potter tells Food Tank how restaurants are “pushing boundaries” in terms of health and wellness by “carrying out our beverages is making the difference.”