Flavor of Georgia grand prize winning drink relies on Georgia peaches

New Creation Soda Works, which produces a variety craft sodas, created a peach drink last year that won the grand prize in the annual Flavor of Georgia food contest earlier this month at the University of Georgia.

But a breakfast meal would be key happenstance that would propel this Oconee County soda company into producing the drink it has labelled “Peches.”

Paul Kooistra, the CEO and founder of New Creation, recalled recently that he and his father were having breakfast at Mama’s Boy, when his dad ordered French toast with a peach puree that the menu noted was made from Georgia peaches.

Kooistra was curious. His company produces a variety of unique craft sodas of flavors ranging from strawberry-habanero to split-banana cream.

“We’ve always wanted to do a peach soda, but we wanted to use Georgia peaches,” he said. “The problem was we couldn’t find anybody that could get us enough peaches in a cost-effective way that could last throughout the year. We didn’t want it to be a seasonal product,” he explained.

So he inquired at Mama’s Boy about the source for their peaches. They came from Pearson Farm in Fort Valley.

Kooistra said he contacted the farm and they offered him 9,000 pounds from a crop down from previous years due to a killing frost last March that took a toll on the state’s peach crop.

“I said, ‘Ok, we’ll take it.”

“This year they will have their best crop ever, so they are committing about 25,000 pounds of peaches to us,” he said.

Once the new peach soda was formulated, it was given the name “Peches.”

“People have told us for years to sign up for the Flavor of Georgia,” Kooistra said of the annual contest. “We never did.”

But now seemed the time.

“This is the perfect flavor to enter. We make it in Georgia. We use Georgia agriculture,” he said.

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Kooistra and head brewer Alex Harding began mixing and testing the ingredients for Peches.

They already use fruit in some sodas “so we went by the same method and just had to get the balance of peaches right,” he said.

In early April, Flavor of Georgia, sponsored by the University of Georgia’s College of Agriculture and Environmental Sciences, announced its winners in several categories ranging in numerous food projects from jellies to pickled food and barbecue sauces. Peches was awarded the grand prize.

The production company, although located on a Bishop rural route, is barely a stone’s throw from the Watkinsville city limits along Old Bishop Road. The business is open for the public to visit.

Kooistra, born in Florida, grew up in his early years in Clinton, Miss., and later in St. Louis, as his father was a minister, who served and taught in seminaries in those two states. Later his father served as president for Mission to the Word of the Presbyterian Church in Atlanta. Kooistra moved to Georgia in 2005 to be closer to family.

New Creation sells its sodas in more than 700 locations. One of the sodas is an old-time drink but with a unique flavor -- root beer.

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“I grew up enjoying root beer because my grandfather made it for my mom when she was a kid,” he said. “I wanted a root beer that was creamy with a lot of vanilla and not a lot of Wintergreen or Star Anise.”

“A lot of root beers use Star Anise, which has a black licorice flavor. I can’t stand that,” he said. “Wintergreen is OK, but I don’t want too much of it. We make it really smooth and creamy with vanilla flavor instead of the other two. Even people that typically don’t like root beer have enjoyed our root beer for that reason.”

In addition, New Creation cooks its sugar for the blend.

“Instead of just pure cane sugar, we caramelize it and it makes it rich in flavor and a lot different than regular sugar,” Kooistra said.

And there is one more little touch to their style of Georgia root beer.

“We add a little bit of pecan flavor to give it a touch of the South,” the former Mississippian said.

This article originally appeared on Athens Banner-Herald: Oconee County business relies on Georgia-grown peaches for new drink