Kutztown Soda Works has a 150-year tradition of manufacturing their own line of premium recipe soft drinks. However by 2000 their product line had dwindled to only two flavors distributed in a limited regional market.
To capitalize on the micro-brew craze of the time, Matt Merkel convinced KSW to reintroduce single-serving glass container bottles packaged in convenient 4-pack carriers and to re-brand the product with an emphasis on the Pennsylvania Dutch heritage of the company, accomplished through new label designs and colloquial advertising copy. Sales of the rebranded products were enormously successful, leading to an expanded product line of 8 flavors distributed throughout 33 states and available for direct order online. The label designs also won an OAF Silver Addy award and garnered media attention in beverage industry trade publications.
BevNET Review — Kutztown Birch Beer is one of the best birch beers to ever come our way. Featuring a very clean flavor that is flavored with pure cane sugar, this product is not quite as creamy as a sarsaparilla or root beer, but it still has many many of the same qualities. Specifically, Kutztown has a very nice wintergreen flavor, which is usually only found in higher end beverages. Overall, a very clean flavor with a unique micro-style package design.
