There’s only one carbonated beverage on the drinks market that contains a third of a person’s daily fibre intake and one billion probiotics while still tasting delicious. It's called Good Sh*t Soda.

Good Sh*t is the brainchild of co-founders and couple Rebecca Caughey and Nick Brown, who were inspired to kickstart their soda journey back in 2019 before releasing Good Sh*t Soda on World Digestive Health Day in 2021. 

Caughey and Brown said the inspiration to create a prebiotic soda came after the pair decided they wanted to launch themselves into the drinks market – and make a difference while doing it.

Before Good Sh*t Soda, Caughey and Brown had already cut their teeth on the food and drinks market with their importation company Cook and Nelson – known for bringing McClure’s Pickles, Tony’s Chocolonely and Seedlip to New Zealand’s table.

“After we cut our teeth with importing global challenger brands, we had an appetite to see what we could do with everything we've learned,” Brown said.

Caughey said they saw the growing popularity of healthy lifestyle drinks, but the kombucha and tonic markets were oversaturated. 

They decided to pack a soda with a billion probiotics and a third of a person’s necessary daily fibre intake.

“The fact that we can take a soft drink – which is traditionally very high in sugar – and mostly very bad for us and then flip it around so it's almost better to drink it than not is really fun,” Caughey said.

Brown said they didn't see why people had to make a choice between a drink that's tasty and one that's good for you.

“It made us think: why can't we do both tasty and good for you?” he said.

The soda comes in many flavours, from classic cola and ginger beer to berry and citrus. Last week, the couple launched their new tropical flavour – one that had been in the works for a while, Brown said.

The tropical flavour contains three forms of mango, to give the drinker a “proper rounded mango taste” and both Caughey and Brown said it tastes like sunshine in a can.

Brown told BusinessDesk it wasn’t easy to fit 10 grams of fibre into each soda can, as well as packing in enough probiotics per can that could survive the pasteurisation process.

The pair went to India to do the testing because neither NZ nor Australia had the labs to do it.

“Normally, when you're doing something, you look around and say, okay, how is this being done?” Brown said.

“But we didn't really have that. That was really liberating for us. It was like, well, okay, let's just walk our own path.”

After it was released last year, Good Sh*t Soda quickly attracted the attention of consumers and retailers. Eighteen months later, the soda was available in several hundred supermarkets and cafes across the country.

The pair aren’t sure what the future holds – yet. But both Caughey and Brown agree that it will involve a continuation of what they’re already doing – and hopefully an extension into more international markets.

“Through Cook and Nelson, we're pretty familiar with how the market operates and retailers’ point of view,” Brown said. “As a distributor, we also know exactly what is required of a partner in the market.”

Right now, the couple is planning to jump into the quickly approaching summer and get as many cans into people’s hands as possible.

“Although it's been challenging, it's actually been really enjoyable,” Caughey said. “We thrive on innovating and creativity.”

Brown agreed that it was the reason they were in business. “We really enjoy being equal to a challenge and coming out the other side of it with those lessons and improvements."