How good.

A very big thank you to all of you - for ordering, for emailing us about minor website quirks (for sending screenshots of said quirks) and for trying something that is, let’s be honest, not immediately intuitive the first time someone hears ‘drink balls’.

We confused a few people, forgot a few things and there were some minor issues, but overall, I’m surprised (and pleased!) at how well it went.

For a soft launch (on our website only) of a business that spent three years in R&D hell trying to make green chemistry work in the real world… 7,000 in just a week feels pretty significant.

If this is what happens before we’re anywhere near supermarket shelves, before events, retail or any kind of real scale… dare I say it makes me optimistic that we might actually shift the drinks industry together?…

So what’s next?

Our next item on the to do list is finalise our events schedule for the next few months. Hoping to see a fair few of you around the country. I’m thinking ‘crochet and cocktails’ (I can’t crochet but I can make cocktails), or ‘bow wows and balls’? So many ideas, so much alliteration.

More on those soon but if you have any more ideas (they must have some form of alliteration though, it pleases my brain), don’t keep them to yourself.

Leave a comment

A newsletter update:

We’ve been thinking about how we’ll handle newsletters without harassing you now that our site is finally live.
This is our final newsletter through Substack - in future they will be sent through our shiny new newsletter system so we don’t double up and drive you all mad. Articles and the other insightful, witty things we write here will be posted on our blog on our website.

If you want to follow along the more personal side of building the business, sprinkled with tips on building better businesses and probably too many pictures of animals, I write on here too.

Brianne West

Built a global plastic-free beauty brand, now doing it again with Incrediballs to take on 'big soda'. Entrepreneur, scientist & environmentalist, so you get a bit of everything really.

Otherwise this will be our last Substack article.

Some bits and pieces in the press:

I was on the NBR podcast with Simon Shepherd last week. I have no idea if it was any good or not as I cannot listen to my own voice, but you can listen below if you’re interested.

We talked about why recycling was never going to be a solution (which plastic manufacturers knew way back when), why glass performs worse than people expect when you look at life cycle analyses, and why I didn’t just retire after Ethique - amongst other things.

And yet these are the quotes Ella chose to take from the interview:

You can also see a piece in the ODT here, the fab article in Stuff here, I had a chat to Mike Hosking on the radio here, and some other bits and bobs here and here.

We can’t do much, but we can do this

Last week was a chaotic week around the country and my heart goes out to all affected by these increasingly common 1-in-100 year weather events (I wonder why that’s happening then 🤔).

It’s an incredibly poor consolation prize, but if you know of anyone affected who might appreciate a wee pick me up, let us know below and we’ll see if we can send them some balls.

Leave a comment

Thank you again for your support and encouragement. 7,000 down, next stop 30 million, right?

Have a great week,
Brianne.

I didn’t want to wait till we were ‘successful’ or flush with loads of cash (lol) to start giving back, I wanted to do it from day one. And everyone told me this was stupid. I suppose, in fairness to them, it is a little naive, because startups have one thing in common - they have no money. Ethique didn’t, and Incrediballs doesn’t either. I am running Incrediballs as a proper startup, so there is no blank cheque behind the scenes, greenlighting every idea we have.
I could go into why I made that decision, but I don’t really think you’re reading our Substack for those sorts of conversations.

It has always felt backwards to me that you grow a business, doing all sorts of damage on the way, and then when you hit some arbritrary point, you decide to look at how you could try and make it better. Wouldn’t it be better not to do the damage in the first place?

This logic is more obvious with things like paying a living wage. I lost count of the number of people who said ‘you can just pay people a living wage when you’re bigger’. The underlying message being you can only grow a startup if you exploit people to get there, as long as once you do, you think about paying them a wage they can actually live on.

And yet I am the one people look sideways at?

Anywho, that’s a philosophical tangent you probably didn’t want.

What have we done so far?

We’ve been stuck in R&D hell for about three years now, but that doesn’t mean we haven’t already been working on this.

Ecologi: We’ve been an Ecologi member since the business was first registered back in 2023. Ecologi funds trees (with a brilliant organisation called the Eden Reforestation Project - more on them soon…), rewilding projects, community projects, clean energy initiatives and so on. I have worked with them for all my companies for years and love their work.

OnlyOne: A bit like Ecologi, OnlyOne have ‘gamified’ giving. They find, vet and then work with organisations and communities around the world creating real impact with activities like planting coral, pulling plastic out of the ocean and restoring mangroves - as well as lobbying global leaders. Again, I’m a huge fan of what they do and how easy they make it - but without compromising on genuine oomph.

Click on the name of each org above to see our impact dashboard for both.

WWF: We hosted a screening of David Attenborough’s ‘Ocean’ last year with some brilliant speakers to draw awareness to some of the truly grim statistics in the film. All proceeds went to the WWF.

SPCA: I combined my old soap-making skills with Incrediballs and turned them into SPCA-themed soap cupcakes - with 100% of sales donated to the SPCA. For a $30 donation, you got two soap cupcakes and a free box of Incrediballs. Together, we raised $3,210 for the SPCA which made piping soap icing swirls at 2am worth it!

Donations: We’ve donated samples to more than 20 NGOs and community groups for them to use in fundraising (or to just enjoy). And no - this does not include prizes and surprises we’ve given away to some of the ballers.

So now what? Drumroll please…. 🥁

Introducing the Incredifund ✨

Yes, at some point I will stop prefacing every word with incredi, but we’re not there yet.

Our plan is to donate 20% of profit, or 2% of sales (whichever is higher) to NGOs, charities, schools and all sorts of other organisations and individuals who are doing good things.

Now, before you send us a paypal request, we do have some parameters. We’re splitting our focus into three, quite broad buckets1.

1. We’re here to rid the world of plastic bottles - we have a strong environmental focus.

2. We want others to see how incredible our planet is, and how arse-backwards some of the things we do are - so there is an education pillar.

3. And finally, health. You can’t be a drinks company without focusing on science-led health. And when we talk about health here, we very deliberately don’t mean wellness culture. We’re not interested in detoxes (not a thing), superfoods (again, not a thing), or telling people they’d feel better if only they tried harder.

How will it work?

We will work with a small number of organisations on an annual, or semi-annual basis for bigger partnerships. It’s so hard to narrow these down, but the way to actually solve problems is to be very focused, rather than higgledy-piggledy and work with every organisation doing good things.

And yes, we will definitely have a small budget set aside to support community organisations and smaller events too - more on how to apply for this soon.

This will evolve. The details will change as the business grows, because of course they will.

I guess we are putting our money where our balls are.
(Had to slide at least one in.)

Kia ora ballers & happy Feb! We had to mark the occasion because of course it’s launch month 🥳
There is a lot going on behind the scenes and I promise we’re not being coy on the exact date for a reason… it’s not just to be difficult. The next email from us will contain dates… so keep an eye out.

If you follow us on Instagram, you might have seen that I asked Mum what she’d do differently if she were CEO. Turns out what I thought was obvious… was not 🥲

After I took a deep breath while she laughed (pictures below), it did make me wonder - what other glaringly obvious questions have we forgotten to answer?

So, let’s run through some Incredi-basics.

Is it one ball per drink?

Nope.

Incrediballs are adjustaball. More balls = stronger flavour. Fewer balls = just a subtle hint. Unlike pre-bottled drinks, you decide exactly how your drink tastes - and you don’t throw any glass or plastic away afterwards.

Balls-to-the-wall full-flavoured drink
10 balls in ~350ml water

Flavoured water
5 balls in ~350ml water

Flirting with flavour
2-3 balls in ~350ml water

Start there or ignore us completely and go wild. But tell us where you ended up as we want to know how you Incrediball.

There’s this handy scale on the box too.

Can you use Incrediballs with alcohol?

Absolutely.

They make an excellent mixer and work beautifully in cocktails. Just don’t go straight in with neat spirits - add a bit of water so the balls can dissolve properly.

They will eventually dissolve without water, but Holy Balls, Batman, it would be strong.

Once they’re dissolved, add your ice, spirits, your little slices of fruit or herbs - whatever your heart desires. We are very much pro-experimentation, especially if you report back to us. And yes, there will be bonus points if we get to see pictures of your creations (once we have that loyalty program up and running…).

Incrediballs are sugar-free - so do they contain sweeteners?

Yes. Because without sugar or sweetener, drinks would taste like sadness. And there’s enough of that going on in the world at the moment.

Taste is personal, so we use different sweeteners across different flavours to try and cater for everyone. For this first launch, we’re using stevia and sucralose. We have experimented with others like monk fruit and so far they’ve been dreadful. You’ll notice most monk fruit sweeteners are actually 99.5% erythritol and there is a good reason for that.

So, Crisp (not crispy) Pear & Tart Grapefruit are sweetened with stevia. I promise they’re not bitter. Well okay the grapefruit is because grapefruits are bitter. But that was intentional.
Classic Cola & Tangy Orange are sweetened with sucralose which makes them have have a real depth of sweetness - which you expect from a cola.

And yes, I did know sucralose would put some people off. There’s a lot of fear-mongering and misinformation out there about it, which is actually kinda odd, given how consistently scientists have found it to be safe over decades.

To be clear: we don’t put anything in our drinks without doing our homework - and a lot of it! I take safety and quality extremely seriously, alongside our lab team - who are also scientists. Much more qualified and much cleverer scientists than me, so you can have a bit of faith.

If you want to see how we came to these decisions, including the evidence behind them, I’ve written a full article on the science of sucralose (and why it’s fine) here.

What else is in them?

I’m going to break this down for you in a video shortly. But basically stuff that makes them dissolve, like sodium bicarb (baking soda) and citric acid, natural flavours, natural colours, nicotinamide (remember that one here?) and B12.

Where can we get them?!

For the next few months (well, after launch), we will be online only! This is a very strategic decision because we want allll the feedback. We want to know what you like, didn’t like, any ideas you have and so on, before we start pushing into retailers. I know that’s a little annoying, but it’s not forever and our website is adoraball, it’s totally worth visiting.

I’ve spent a lot of time recently reading through life cycle analyses (LCAs) looking at the full impact of various packaging materials, and written a Ted talk on why glass actually sucks more than you think it does (title is a work in progress).

Anyway, that’s probably enough from me

Dora is telling me it’s time for a walk by nibbling my ankles. She’s such a treasure.

As always, get in touch if you have any questions.

Party planning continues in the background, and I’m getting pretty excited (but mostly nervous). For reasons we’ll tell you about soon we can’t tell you when said events will be yet, but soon.

Next time you get an email from us, it’ll contain a launch date 😉

Have a fantastic week,
Brianne, Incrediella & the ballers.

You see, I’ve spent a lot of time recently reading through life cycle analyses (LCAs) looking at the full impact of various packaging materials.

Welcome to my Ted talk on why glass actually sucks more than you think it does (title is a work in progress).

We talk a lot about plastic. We share the photos and the videos - like the horrendous one we all saw of that poor turtle and the straw which kicked off the plastic straw ban in many parts of the world.

There are headlines about seabird chicks that are so full of plastic that they crunch. There are pictures of rivers clogged with rubbish shown draining straight into our oceans. And yes - that is all true (largely) and all incredibly sad.

But it’s also only part of the story. Because when we focus only on what we can see - usually the end of life, we stop looking upstream at the energy, materials, and systems required to make the other stuff.

End of life is important, but it’s not the full picture, and without that we make bad decisions.

Like buying the glass bottle instead of the plastic one.

First, what is an LCA?

Just briefly, LCAs are reports that assess the full impact of a product from material sourcing through to end of life. They are currently the best tools we have for understanding real environmental impact using real data.

They are how we understand more complex problems - like whether electric vehicles have less impact than cars with internal combustion engines (they absolutely do 99% of the time).

Do they have limitations? Of course. Particularly when it comes to microplastics and long term effects. And that’s because we still don’t actually know that much about them (despite the alarmist headlines). But science doesn’t stay still and tools are being developed as we speak to factor these complexities in.

So they may not be perfect, but LCAs are still vastly better than focusing on one part of a problem and ignoring the rest.

The scale of the problem (Aotearoa edition)

We use 2 billion single-use drinks containers every year in Aotearoa. (What?! For a country of five million people, that is mind-boggling.)

Around ~70% of those containers are made from PET plastic (polyethylene terephthalate).

And every robust LCA I could find came to the same conclusion:

Best to worst, the order looks like this:

1. Recycled PET (rPET)

2. Virgin PET

3. Recycled glass

4. Virgin glass

(I’ll get to aluminium in a min.)

I first talked about this on social media last year and man… the comments. I got called a shill for the oil and gas industry. Which I found hilarious. But sometimes facts get our backs up because they conflict with what we believe. And most of us believe that glass has less impact.

But glass is hugely resource intensive from start to finish.

It requires enormous amounts of energy to manufacture and recycle. It’s extremely heavy, making transport emissions far higher. It has the highest acidification potential (acid rain is still a thing, we just don’t talk about it anymore). It has the highest global warming potential, causes the most eutrophication (nutrient overload in waterways, which leads to algal blooms, which leads to dead zones).

And surprisingly perhaps, it scores the worst for human, aquatic, and terrestrial toxicity. Though I personally reckon that one might change with more information on plastic pollution.

Here’s a graph for you from one of the LCA’s I used.

Glass manufacturing has an enormous environmental footprint yet we still treat it as a single-use product and tell ourselves that it’s fine, because ‘it’s just glass! It’s basically just sand’.

And recycled glass is better sure, but not by heaps (energy intensive process) and there ain’t that much of it out there anyway.

Globally, only about 21% of glass is recycled. For bottles specifically it’s closer to 32%.

In Aotearoa, around 42% of collected glass becomes new bottles - mostly in Tāmaki Makaurau Auckland, which is great. But around the rest of the country it’s usually downcycled into roads or paving. So, it’s basically single-use again.

If we looked only at disposal to the environment, glass has less obviously damaging impact.

Glass doesn’t get eaten by animals and it doesn’t break down into microplastics. It doesn’t end up in massive gyres in our oceans, or clog rivers.

That’s the quick and dirty on glass.

If we look at plastic:

Globally, we produce 350 million tonnes of plastic waste every year. JFC.

In 2019:

• 9% was recycled

• 20% was incinerated

• 25% was mismanaged (aka litter)

The rest went to landfill.

Around 0.5% ends up in the ocean - about 2.5 million tonnes annually, although scientists reckon that’s likely to be underestimated.

A quick aside on recycling - there are three big reasons that it was never going to work and the companies pushing it knew that.

1. The volumes are too large. 350 million tonnes of plastic waste every year - and production is expected to grow another 30% by 2030. There simply isn’t enough infrastructure. It’s also complicated because there are so many different types, with different additives and they don’t all go into one big cauldron.

2. It doesn’t financially stack up. Recycling plastic is more expensive than making virgin. So why would companies do it?

3. And finally, a lot of plastic isn’t actually recyclable. It’s down-cyclable. Each time it’s processed it loses some of its properties. That’s why bottles are usually a mix of virgin and recycled.

Oil companies knew this decades ago and spent hundreds of millions convincing us recycling was the solution. Thanks to an investigation by NPR, we know that.

In summary:

And that’s the part that people cannot seem to get past because there are always two arguments when I talk about this.

The first is that the impact of plastic pollution is not considered properly - sure, but apparently it might not move the needle as much as you think it will. And tools are coming, so we’ll soon have a better idea.

The second is ‘but this is a stupid comparison, because the glass bottles get reused’.

No. They don’t.

Glass bottles can be reused loads and loads of times, (though technically so can plastic bottles).

But hardly anyone does that. They are considered single-use just as much as a pump bottle is and after that one drink is finished they end up in the bin.

If we’re going to make the best decisions, we need to look at what actually goes on in the real world. Not the one we wish we lived in.

So where does aluminium fit in?

Aluminium cans have some impressive stats.

About 75% of all aluminium ever made is still in use today.

We use 180 billion aluminium cans globally each year.

Recycling aluminium uses 95% less energy than producing it from virgin ore.

Cans are usually ~70% recycled content.

Global recycling rates sit around 50%, depending heavily on local infrastructure.

So, overall aluminium is your best option.

So it should go:

1. Can

2. Plastic bottle

3. Glass bottle

Except of course it shouldn’t. Because all of this ignores the real problem, which is…

Single-use anything sucks.

None of these options are good.

Single-use anything is an enormous waste of resources. Even when it’s compostable and at least delivers something back in the form of bioavailable nutrients, it’s still such an inefficient system.

Which is why reuse is the real answer.

So… what now?

This whole conversation is a large part of why Incrediballs exists.

When I sold up and left Ethique, I did briefly think about stopping. I thought about retiring, spending more time in the ocean (my favourite place in the world) - and just… not doing another startup.

But this bloody nags at me. Because this problem doesn’t go away. Single-use drinks containers don’t go away. The attitude around single-use is wrong. And once you’ve looked properly at the numbers, and the systems behind them, it’s very hard to just ignore it and move on with your life.

Small changes can shift industries. Ethique helped change the beauty industry - much more to be done of course, but the conversation is a bit different now, and much bigger companies have started to create some interesting product formats. And I don’t think drinks are any different. We don’t need perfect solutions, but we do need to stop pretending that swapping one single-use material for another is better, because clearly, it’s more complicated than that.

Lets do less, reuse more, and design things that don’t rely throwing things in the bin in the first place.

So yes, aluminium generally comes out best, plastic performs better than people expect, and glass is much worse than people think. But the more important point is that none of these are good choices in the first place.

The best option is to get rid of the drinks industry entirely, but remember what I said about operating within the real world? Incrediballs is my solution, rather than pretending people are going to give up everything they enjoy.

Sources (quite a few were behind journal paywalls but these should all be readily accessible).

Brock, A., & Williams, I. D. (2020). Life Cycle Assessment of Beverage Packaging. Detritus, 13, 47–61. https://doi.org/10.31025/2611-4135/2020.14025

Stefanini, R., Borghesi, G., Ronzano, A. et al. Plastic or glass: a new environmental assessment with a marine litter indicator for the comparison of pasteurized milk bottles. Int J Life Cycle Assess 26, 767–784 (2021). https://doi.org/10.1007/s11367-020-01804-x

Tang, Y., Mankaa, R.N. & Traverso, M. An effect factor approach for quantifying the impact of plastic additives on aquatic biota in life cycle assessment. Int J Life Cycle Assess 27, 564–572 (2022). https://doi.org/10.1007/s11367-022-02046-9

Woods JS, Verones F, Jolliet O, Vázquez-Rowe I, Boulay AM (2021) A framework for the assessment of marine litter impacts in life cycle impact assessment. In Ecol Indic 129:p. 107918. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ecolind.2021.107918

Possibly more user friendly:

https://ecochain.com/blog/case-study-packaging-plastic-vs-glass/

https://environment.govt.nz/what-government-is-doing/areas-of-work/waste/container-return-scheme/

⁠https://www.aluminum.org/Recycling⁠

https://www.bbc.com/future/article/20230427-glass-or-plastic-which-is-better-for-the-environment (always watch what the media says, but it sums up the arguments nicely).

https://international-aluminium.org/

https://ourworldindata.org/plastic-pollution.

Lots of info and reports: https://www.unep.org/resources/publication/addressing-single-use-plastic-products-pollution-using-life-cycle-approach

I hope you had a good break, if you got one, and that you didn’t get too lost in the wilderness of ‘goochmas’. Yeah. That’s now a thing. Lovely.

Mine involved watching B-grade horror movies with my dad, putting Christmas hats on the animals (mixed feelings from their side), extremely competitive violent water volleyball, and being in bed by five past midnight on NYE.

Which feels about right considering this is going to be a big year.

But you’re not actually here for my holiday recap.

You’re here for the balls! Because in just a few weeks this rollercoaster of a project becomes a real thing you can order, drink, and have opinions about. And we really, really want your opinions. The next few months are all about understanding what works, what doesn’t, how you use them, what ideas you might have, and whether this was all just a terrible idea and I should have stuck to knitting. (Though I suppose I would first have to learn how to knit.)

A big thank you to everyone who managed to get their hands on some balls and sent us some feedback. If we truly want to grow this company into something that changes another industry we need to make sure they’re as brilliant as possible.

If you have tried them and want to leave us a review to kick off the new website, please feel so welcome to do so here 😇

The reviews are a balm to my soul (if I may be so poetic). We’ve been at this so long it’s at the point where I’m wondering if it’s just me that thought this was a good idea. And it’s so unnerving watching people try them for the first time. I watch them so intensely to try and read their microexpressions I think I might come across as a bit… odd. At least when I ran Ethique people couldn’t try shampoo bars right there in front of me.

So where are we at?

Right now we’re planning our launch events, adding the final flourishes to the website, making all the sodding add-ons work and triple-checking all of the other things. So many things. Little tiny decisions like ‘what size logo should we print on the courier labels’, ‘should we do pre-orders’ and ‘should the website font be serif or sans-serif’?1

Seemingly tiny details perhaps, but I’m a big believer in building a brand that lasts and changes an industry, rather than just a business and these little details matter.

In a week or two we’ll be putting the call out for some ballbreakers2 - people who enjoy finding weaknesses in websites and want to help us break ours in order to fix it.

Plastic is the worst.

Is it though?
I know a lot of people buy drinks in glass bottles as it feels like a better choice than a plastic bottle. Now, I don’t want to add to any consumer guilt (it’s not only unfair but also unhelpful) but glass is almost always the worst choice… Sorry! I did a lot of research on this and made a podcast episode on it last year. You might find it interesting that glass isn’t always greener.

And finally, if you missed the news on our socials, we’ve just made our latest hire.

Meet Dora. Short for Adoraball.

She’ll be joining the content team (see below for an example of her first selfie) and will no doubt make regular appearances. On a more serious note, Incrediballs are not made for doggies, so whilst this is a cute photo I will absolutely milk for marketing purposes, there were no balls inside.

Over the next few weeks, we’ll be back in a regular rhythm here and on social. Well we intend to be, but it almost never works out like that and now that I live with a piranha with a bizarre sleep schedule I suspect sticking to a schedule might be slightly tricky. We do what we can.

We’ll be talking about the drinks industry because we’ve learned some things that are slightly enraging, like how it is we ended up with single-use everything, why people think recycling is the answer and that bottled water is healthier than tap (it almost never is). We’ll also be answering more questions about how Incrediballs work, how many you should use (no, it’s not one ball per drink, though if you are that person who has fond memories of diluted raro go for your life), and eventually sharing details about those launch events. Perhaps crochet and cocktails.

Have an Incrediball week,
Brianne, Ella, Dora & the Incrediballs team!

‘lasted both three minutes and three years and punched you in the face three times’.

I think that about nails it.

I’ve alternated between extreme excitement with lying on the floor staring at the ceiling questioning why I ever thought this was a good idea.

But 2026 is already starting off on a better foot.

Just five minutes ago I had confirmation that our first four flavours are officially in the warehouse ready for launch early next year (which is where it all went wrong last time).

Some of you have had chance to try them already. If that’s you and you want to be an early reviewer so people know what to expect, you can get a sneak peek of our (scaled back) new website here.

We’re firming up plans for events around the country next year to celebrate this milestone with you. I wanted to sail around the country on a bright pink and orange yacht (called the Incrediship ofc) firing Incrediballs out of mini cannons into hordes of screaming fans, but for now I will settle for something less dramatic.

Our second range (dropping July/August ish) is bloody delicious (and good for you…) and I am so excited to start talking to you about it. Some of you have noticed I’ve been leaving little Easter eggs around as to what it might be… All will be revealed in good time.

To answer some of your questions:

(Keep an eye on social media too, we’ve got lots of videos coming out to help answer these for you.)

What date in February specifically is launch?

Great question, but I’m not allowed to tell you just yet. Consider it something to look forward to in the New Year 😇

Will there be pre-orders?

Maybe? If you are on this list you will be notified that the balls have dropped before anyone else anyway so I’m not sure it’s necessary, but let me know what you think.

Will they be in stores?

Not initially. I know there are several retailers out there who have been ever so patiently waiting for us to sort our sh*t out, but our first few months will be exclusively online so we can truly understand what people like and don’t like about the first range. But then, watch out Coca Cola - we’re coming for your shelf space (I’m sure they’re terrified).

How does the box work?

Don’t just tear the top open! There is a cool little tab and tucking mechanism built in. Here is Ella demonstrating it for you.

How many balls do I use per drink?

That’s the beauty of having tiny balls - they’re adjustaball! For full-throated oomph, 10 balls per 350ml is the recommendation (ish, you don’t need to weigh or measure anything). But a lot of people like using 5-6 balls, so experiment. Too sweet? Try fewer balls. Want it more of a drink and less like flavoured water? Add a couple more. I reckon grapefruit and pear are better with 6-7 balls, but I like my cola & orange with full flavour. And don’t forget to try em with sparkling water - delish.

What pack sizes are there?

3 and 6 - which are of course packs of 30 and 60 balls respectively. We have single packs (packs of 10), but these won’t be sold individually yet. They’ll be your online freebies with every order and for lots and lots of sampling.

Oh and to answer this slightly strange question…

Someone sent me a rather strange message a few days ago saying I should stop making it look like I’m the one ‘doing all the work’ 🤨 (Referring to the photos I put on IG the other day packaging the prizes for our Ballsmas winners.) So just to stop any weird rumours before they gain traction, yes, I really am building the website and packaging the sendouts and the million other things that a business needs. I am playing with flavours and packaging and chatting to you lot. Ably assisted of course by the magnificent Ella whom you’ve probably spoken to (and my other business partner who handles much of the logistics and legal stuff behind the scenes).

Incrediballs is a startup and I believe that founders, regardless of their past experience, should be er, neck deep in as much as possible in those early days to truly understand what works and doesn’t. It’s fun. And a throwback to the early Ethique days. Less crying though so far, so that’s a step forward.

Have a wonderful holiday season and we will see you next year!

Brianne & Incrediella.

Let us know here as we are neck deep in planning.

I still have the little plan on a page I created back in 2023 with ‘launch, end of 2023’. Adorable. So naive.

R&D this time around has been much trickier than it ever was with Ethique. Although in saying that, I did set several microwaves on fire creating various shampoo bars and as far as I know we’ve not had any flagrations making iballs. Early days though…

Taste is so personal and subjective that you cannot please everyone (you may have seen my reaction when I tried the tonic), the green chemistry that makes our balls stable is brand new and keeps throwing up fun little quirks, and if one more supplier says ‘oh, we could just wrap it in plastic to be safe’ I might go totally bonkers.

But we’re there. Well, no doubt there will be constant tweaks and changes based on your feedback so we’re not there, there, but I am very happy with our first four flavours and looking forward to seeing what you think. (I am incredibly nervous for them to be finally out there, but the worst thing that will happen is you all hate them and I have to go and live alone in a cabin on a mountain somewhere for the rest of my life and that could be ok.)

Of course a launch is not a launch without a party.

We’re planning something pretty Incrediball at a great venue in Ōtautahi Christchurch and you’re all invited. Unfortunately (fortunately?) there are a few thousand of you and as the new stadium isn’t open quite yet, there is a limit on numbers. So make sure you let us know if you want to be there (link below) as we’ll be sending out more info in a week or two.

Do you want to join us?

Those of you around the rest of the motu, we have not forgotten you! We will be hosting some events around and about but where very much depends on you.

If we missed your town, let us know in the comments - there was only so many options we could have in the poll.

Leave a comment

This is the last time you’ll hear from us here for 2025, so as always, a huge thank you for hanging in there and being so patient with us. Next year it’s all go!

I promise it’ll be worth it. I can’t wait for you to see the flavours coming up, and the range we are launching middle of the year… But we can spill all the tea about that another time 👀

Meri Kirihimete (Merry Christmas), have a great holiday season, a wonderful New Year celebration or whatever else you may be indulging in over the long, well-deserved summer period.

Brianne, Ella & the Incrediballs team.

It’s happening! This week Incrediballs are rolling off the presses and into our beautiful colourful boxes in preparation for launch in February. Which is basically a month away as we all know December doesn’t count.

A quick update first - a huge thank you to everyone who supported the SPCA fundraiser a couple of weeks ago. Together we raised $3210, which is much more than I ever expected so I am chuffed to bits! Hopefully you’re smelling delicious and most importantly I hope you enjoyed your boxes of Incrediballs… Please feel free to send any and all feedback our way.Our new website isn’t far off, so we’re going to put the call out to those of you who’ve tried them to get us started with some reviews, and those with the most (tasteful-ish) ball puns win!

I’m currently watching our balls roll off the conveyor belt.

I am here at the factory in the UK watching Crisp Pear roll off the machinery (which incidentally looks a little like a Dalek). It smells like something out of Willy Wonka 🤤

I am here mainly to get as much content as possible to satisfy the content marketing team (hiring to come, watch this space because I am sick of making videos), but also to talk about the new ideas I’ve come up with since my last visit. You can almost see the lab techs wince when I start asking questions. But there is just so much opportunity to do things better! People aren’t going to stop buying drinks and.. other things 👀, so let’s make them a better option, with less negative impact.

We’re tossing up which range to launch as a follow up in the middle of 2026. We’ll be dropping flavours randomly every now and then as a fun surprise, but we have two range ideas that we want to release all together. But which one to prioritise… that’s the question.

Do you want to know what they are? Okay, okay, I’ll tell you.

The first range is more of a party range. Flavours you’ll drink when you’re out celebrating, (or commiserating) with names that rhyme with schmina schmolada and schmohito.

The second is more of a daily ritual. Something you might have in the morning, or later in the day as a pick-me-up. With ingredients that might give you some energy to get through your emails, or perhaps a little more focus.

Clear as mud? Good. Which would you prefer first, a range of cocktails, or a range of teas 😇

And on that note, why not help us prioritise flavours too. Because so far I’ve tasted 19 and some of them have been ah-mazing. Depressingly, mango was one of those.

Or… something else entirely? Leave us a comment below with your flavour demands. I may have changed my mind (begrudgingly) on mango, but feijoa is still a hard no. Standards people.

Leave a comment

Quick Questions

Q) Will I be sharing behind-the-scenes updates from the lab?

A) Yes! You know how I love to overshare. But also I am a big believer in transparency in business (yes, with an eye to commercial sensitivity), so I will be bringing you along as much as possible.

Q) Does this mean Incrediballs are getting closer to being launched?

A) Yes it does… I promised you February and so far (please touch wood and cross your fingers), we are on track. What date in February? Not allowed to say yet… but we will confirm a date soon. Or, we might just spring it on you as our loyal newsletter followers first. Who knows.

Q) Will this visit help speed up future launch timelines, new flavours, and packaging iterations?

A) It certainly will. Many exciting things have already been discussed… and many more no doubt.

Q) Um, why are they being made in the UK and not in NZ?

A) Well unfortunately, this is the only place with the tech to make them! Yes, one day we’d love to bring the factory and the tech back to Aotearoa, but let’s take things one step at a time. For those worried about the carbon emissions, don’t fret. These are so small and light that the transport around the world adds almost nothing to their impact. The future really is balls I tell you. And if you are concerned about team travel (and fair enough), we have been double offsetting our travel since before the company actually even existed. I know, offsetting is not a silver bullet, but all travel is weighed up against the impact and we only go when we consider the long-term positive impact greater than the negative. As I try to do with all my decisions. We won’t be here to watch all batches be made and we will no doubt eventually have a team member or two based here. If you want to see our impact thus far, you can see it here:

And of course, you all know why we’re doing this right - to rid the world of plastic bottles. Because if you’re paying attention (and I can’t blame you if you’re not), the news around the plastic pollution crisis just keeps getting worse. Microplastics have been found everywhere we’ve looked. That’s everything from brains, to umbilical cords, in the plaque that clogs arteries, testicles, and somewhat bizarrely, even dolphin’s breath. Not to mention every environment ever sampled, all the way down to the deepest part of the world’s oceans - the Mariana Trench. Fewer than 35 people have been down there, but scientists have found plastic bags and sweet wrappers down there. I’m surprised it wasn’t a coke bottle.

I know I find them almost wherever I go when I’m exploring.

And on that note, I’m off to help (hinder) make and pack the cola balls.

Have a fantastic week,
Brianne.

Okay, fine, that might be a bit niche.

But the person who made it possible to track your suitcase around the world also came up with the first soft drink tablet.
It sucked (apparently), but it was the first step in an 80 year R&D timeline (which really makes our current delays seem like nothing, right?).

That person was Hedy Lamarr - ‘the world’s most beautiful woman’.

Hedy (real name Hedwig - yes my mind went straight to the owl too) was an Austrian actress across the 1930s, 40s and 50s. She is particularly famous for being the first woman to er, express enjoyment, in a movie and eventually ended up escaping her arms dealer husband by fleeing the country - ending up in America.

A lot of people know of her for her movie credits, but less is known of her talent for inventing the coolest stuff.

She came up with a bunch of things that solved problems, like a glow-in-the-dark dog collar and better traffic lights.

In the early years of WW2, Hedy attended arms deals with her first husband (to incentivise the buyers apparently), and that was where she learned that missile tracking systems were easily jammed.

She spoke about it with a composer friend of hers and they came up with the idea of ‘frequency hopping’ - where the transmitter & receiver of a signal could quickly bounce between frequencies to prevent the signal being jammed. They filed a patent in 1942 and approached the US Navy with their invention to aid the fight against Nazi Germany, but ultimately the Navy didn’t deem it practical.

It wasn’t until a couple of decades later than the idea was picked back up for various purposes within the military, before making it’s way into the mainstream commercial sphere and making things like Wi-Fi, Bluetooth, GPS and mobile phones possible.

World-changing tech for sure, but she did something way more important afterwards…

She invented the soda tablet.

In the early 1940s she tinkered about with a dissolvable tablet that could be dropped into water and make a cola flavoured drink.

She did so because she was always looking at the world around her and wondering how she could improve it. A tablet made a lot of sense for military supply chains and travel in general because everything was packaged in glass and very heavy. This was well before plastic bottles were around, in fact Coca Cola only started using those in the 1980s.

Unfortunately they didn’t go down very well. Hedy herself said it ‘tasted like Alka-Seltzer’ which isn’t a ringing endorsement. The chemistry wasn’t developed yet, the sweeteners didn’t exist, and I have no doubt the options available for flavours were… limited.

Now technically she didn’t invent the idea of an effervescent tablet, as Alka-Seltzer was launched in 1931 (it’s an effervescent antacid), but she did position it as an everyday drink, not as a medicine.

A decade later as chemistry improved, a brand called ‘Fizzies’ launched a soft drink tablet. The brand had a pretty up and down life: it was discontinued in the early seventies, then relaunched in the mid 1990s, before being discontinued again just a few months later. They were again relaunched in the late 2000s, and finally discontinued in 2016. I choose not to take that as an omen.

Let’s hope it’s third time lucky…

Women’s contributions to science and technology throughout history are often forgotten, but Hedy should be known for so much more than being the ‘world’s most beautiful woman’.

It’s taken 80 years so far to launch a truly delicious soft drink tablet (yes, they are a bit different to the water flavouring ones out there), but we’re getting pretty close now…

None of this has gone as I expected when I first decided to give this a crack, but well, that’s the reality of R&D for you. I know it’s been a little frustrating and I really am thankful for the support you’ve shown us.

As you know, we pulled the pin just two days out from launch a couple of months ago. Unfortunately, our packaging was damaged during transit. One of the many joys of working with genuinely home-compostable cardboard packaging is that it is more fragile than plastic.

But we learned from the worst-case scenario actually happening and now we have a better process so it’s full-steam ahead!

Which is not to say it will all be smooth sailing from here on out, because of course building a startup with brand-new, revolutionary tech (which I do feel a little ridiculous saying) never will be.

We did manage to salvage some packs (which we called Incrediseconds, naturally) and sent them around the country to around 20 different NGOs and community groups so all was not totally lost.

All that to say, launch is early February 2026.

I know, I know, that feels like ages away, but there is a good reason for it. Launching a product in November is not a great idea. Most of us are mentally checked out for December/January anyway so do those months even really exist? Lots of people are travelling for the holiday season, many people are being flooded out of campgrounds around the country - it’s a chaotic time and trying to drum up excitement for a launch then is no easy feat.

Really, if we ignore those two months where time is more metaphorical, it’s really only a couple of months away. It’ll fly by.

And as an added bonus, because we’re all depressed in January, you won’t need to dread going back to work because you’ll have Incrediballs there to brighten your day!

It also gives us some time to plan a few launch events around the country so watch this space… If you’ve got any great ball themed event ideas near you I’m all ears. The lawyers have already said no to a paintball event 🥲

The delay has been an opportunity to get more comfortable with watching people try them in person. It is ever so nerve-racking staring at someone as they try something you’ve poured your heart and soul into (and it’s probably a bit weird for them too thinking about it).

I was judging the EY Entrepreneur of the Year awards earlier this week and watching some of the judges knock back a couple of glasses throughout the day (without even being bribed) reinforced that confidence - I am pretty sure you will be happy with them when you do get your hands on them… they’re pretty tasty.

We’ll be back to our regularly scheduled programming on social media shortly too - so see you over there!

Have an Incrediball evening,
Brianne, Ella & the Incrediballs team.

There’s a minor issue with the packaging and some damage from the journey over. The balls themselves are delish - taste incrediball (obviously).

And could we launch anyway? Yeah probably. But it wouldn’t be the standard we want to set, and first impressions last a lifetime. So, as agonising as it is, we're holding launch back for a couple of months. I know, I know, it seems like a long time, but it really isn't.

And by then it'll be Spring. Which is a much nicer time for delicious cold drinks anyway.

Obviously though, we're here to displace waste, not make more of it. So instead of having a party and pouring all of them in a pool for the content (which, I’m not gonna lie, would be fun), we’re going to treat them like seconds and do stuff with them of course.

What stuff? Well, we’ve got some ideas, but I bet you do too. Send them through, and we’ll see what we can do.

And for those desperate to try them, we’ve seen you out there; commenting on our posts, cheering us on, coming up with hilarious puns, defending mango as a flavour (wrong, by the way) and we've been paying attention.

So over the next couple of months, we'll be sending out packs to people as a thank you, and to tide you over.

It is disappointing, and frustrating, and we're cross about it too, but this is what startups actually look like in real life, and why most (wiser?) brands don’t chat about it this early. And even though it’s made some of these comms a little more agonising (nothing like suffering disappointment in public), I still reckon having you along with us has made the journey better.

Feel free to send pictures of your animals, they always cheer us up.

Brianne & the Incrediballs team.

Most likely two. But no more than three. Probably.

I know, frustrating isn't it?

But this is the reality behind building a startup - particularly one that is trying to create something entirely new, and incredibly difficult. And having to tell people disappointing news is the risk I ran bringing people on the journey so early (which people did say was a stupid idea).

The last couple of months have been a bit of a nightmare honestly. But the light at the end of the tunnel is getting brighter and we've just got a couple more things to do, (which should have been straight forward).

So, bear with us, we're nearly there, we just need to sort some logistical/operational bits and pieces.

At least they taste bloody delish. As you'll find out for yourselves soon 👀.

In the meantime, look at some of these spectacular behind the scenes shots of our photoshoot from a couple of weeks ago.

More details to come in just a few days.

Brianne & the Incrediballs Team.

You may have even heard about it, but mentioned in a different way…

This is a shortened version of the info presented in this podcast - if you are keen for more detail or the transcript, visit the website here.

In fact, if you are on skintok, or skinstagram (mmm, that one doesn't flow as well does it), you will almost certainly have heard of it.

We didn't put it in there to give you good skin though; it's in Incrediballs because it helps us do our whole thing - rid the world of plastic bottles. It’s part of our co-crystal tech that keeps our balls stable, so that we can package them in home compostable cardboard.

And as it turns out, it also has some really interesting effects on human health.

That magical ingredient is ✨nicotinamide✨.

Those of you who are familiar with terms like double cleanse will know it as niacinamide (exact same thing). It's a form of vitamin B3. (But no, absolutely nothing to do with nicotine, or smoking!)

What it actually does

The short version is that nicotinamide is a form of vitamin B3 that your body uses to make NAD⁺ (short for nicotinamide adenine dinucleotide). NAD+ is what you may have seen on the front of that expensive bottle of 'brain booster', as it's a molecule involved in everything from turning food into energy to repairing DNA.

It helps your cells make energy by enabling key steps in how your mitochondria (remember the 'powerhouse of the cell' from school?) convert food into adenosine triphosphate (ATP). Without enough NAD⁺, that whole system slowwws down, which means less energy for everything your body does.

It helps repair your DNA. Every day, your DNA gets damaged by things like UV light, pollutants, and normal cellular stress. To fix it (which you definitely want to happen...) your cells use enzymes like poly (ADP-ribose) polymerases (we will call them PARPs for short) which use up NAD⁺ as part of the repair process.

‘It boosts your immune system.’ Okay, no it doesn't, because that's not a thing that can happen. You can't 'boost' your immune system with a supplement no matter how much wellness people say you can. But immune cells do rely heavily on NAD⁺ to produce the energy and signals they need to respond to infections. It also helps regulate how strongly and how long your immune system responds - reducing overreaction and maintaining control (which is what can lead to autoimmune disorders).

It also helps regulate inflammation and cell stress by supporting sirtuins (a group of proteins). These proteins influence how cells respond to damage and how genes related to stress and ageing are expressed. Sirtuins can only function when NAD⁺ levels are adequate.

So, when I say your body needs NAD⁺ to run all of those essential processes, it seems pretty clear why right? But the irritating part of all of this is that as we age, we make less of it.

In a super sustainable move though, our bodies recycle NAD⁺ back into nicotinamide, through something called the salvage pathway. Ignore the name, it’s not actually a last-resort system - it’s how your body maintains most of its NAD⁺ stores. Nicotinamide enters this cycle and gets converted back into NAD⁺ so your cells can keep doing their jobs. The NAD+ is used up, one of the products is nicotinamide, and poof, back it goes into NAD+.

So Incrediballs contains nicotinamide, which is a NAD+ precursor, like a couple of others you may have heard of; like nicotinamide riboside (NR) and nicotinamide mononucleotide (NMN). They all have pros and cons, a fair amount of research and have slightly different biochemical roles, but ultimately, they can all be converted into NAD+.

But what about the marketing claims. Does more NAD+ make you smarter, younger, or more energised?

Well, no. We don't think so yet anyway. There is some science to show it might do some good stuff, then some studies that show it might not do much at all. But it's an area of ongoing research so it is interesting.

Nicotinamide isn’t a nootropic (a term used for stuff that improves your cognitive abilities). It won’t give you 20 hours of unrelenting focus to memorise an encyclopedia (although I guess no one has those now anyway?) or unlock your inner genius. But NAD+ does support the systems that keep your brain working as you age. So, that might be interesting. There is some promising (but early) research in areas like Alzheimer’s and Parkinson’s - though it's far from conclusive.

But no, you won't become all zesty and articulate if you start taking a B3 supplement.

But if it's just niacinamide, then what about skin?

Applied topically there’s great evidence that nicotinamide (niacinamide remember) genuinely does help with things like acne, pigmentation, and redness. Taken orally? Unfortunately, not a lot of evidence yet. Well, okay pretty much none, except for one thing: nicotinamide has been shown, in several human trials, to reduce non-melanoma skin cancers in people with sun damage.

That is very interesting.

Okay, but can I skip my energy drink if I take it?

NAD⁺ is what your mitochondria use to turn food into energy. So yeah, it sounds like drinking nicotinamide = more energy. But sadly that's also a no. It supports energy production, but not in a stimulant-y, Red Bull kind of way. It’s about maintaining baseline function, so it helps with the energy processes in your cells, it doesn't give you a boost when you have 3.30 itis (I have a nap 3-4 days a week, highly recommend).

For other metabolic issues, some studies have shown some benefits in insulin sensitivity or metabolism. Others don’t, but there might be reasons for that. The science is still forming, but it’s promising. So, watch this space...

Why Nicotinamide, not something trendier like NMN or NR?

I explained above that there are several NAD+ precursors; NMN and NR are the two more popular. So, for marketing reasons it would make sense to use those. But again, these benefits aren't actually why we used nicotinamide in the first place.

They're also more expensive, less stable, NMN has fewer human trials and in the end... your body just converts it into nicotinamide anyway.

There is some evidence that they might be better at producing more NAD+, but all three have shown conclusively that they all cause an increase in NAD+ in humans. So, on balance, we're pretty happy

.

Some specifics for you:

• One serve of Incrediballs is 67mg of nicotinamide (so that's ten balls in 350ml, though don't forget, they're adjustaBALL, so you can have them how you like).

• That’s 418% of your RDI. Sounds high, but honestly, some of the studies above used WAAYYYY more and the participants reported minimal side effects.

• And it's still way below the upper safe limit, which is 900 mg/day (which those studies above actually went over too, but we'll use that limit for now).

So, that's our magical ingredient. It's pretty cool actually; I didn't intend to have anything in there for this range that people who associate with health as ultimately, I want this to be a drink people love the taste of, rather than because they think it might help improve their health.

But I thought you may want to know some details on what you're drinking before we launch.

So yeah - nicotinamide is a science-backed ingredient that helps us deliver something useful without the healthwashing. And it just happens to help make our plastic-free tech possible.

From sourcing home-compostable stock (cardboard), to designing the teeniest boxes in the world and ensuring all the legal requirements were on there... it has sucked.

You'll see what I mean when you get one of the boxes in your hands in just a few weeks, they are smol!

But it is worth it! Over one trillion single-use plastic bottles are made and binned every single year, just for the drinks industry. That's bottled water, coca cola, powerade and everything in between. Cans and glass bottles are even more on top.

That is bonkers. It's about 10 million tonnes of plastic. Every. single. year.

45% of the litter on your average city street is single-use drinks bottles.

But okay, you knew this, this is why you are here in the first place.

You want to know what is special about our packaging.

Well, all our boxes are home-compostable (honestly, it's just cardboard). We are in fact the first and only drinks company in the world with plastic-free, home-compostable packaging. Hopefully not the last though...

The stock they are made of is not only FSC certified (that's the Forestry Stewardship Council), it's also certified home compostable - not industrially compostable. And that matters because industrial composting doesn't happen too much in places like Aotearoa New Zealand, Australia, the USA or UK, or if it does, they often won't take packaging because they have to maintain their compost integrity (fair enough).

Most of the industrially compostable stuff around eventually ends up in landfill. And no, unfortunately it doesn't compost there.

But home-compostable means just that.

If you have a compost heap at home, or a local green collection that accepts uncoated cardboard, or even a community compost, you can just rip up your box and toss it in. Easy peasy, the boxes return to delicious compost to nourish the next cycle of growth.

But if you don't compost, that's okay because they are also recyclable.

Unfortunately most cardboard boxes have laminates or coatings that prevent them from composting (and some cases even stop them being recycled). The coatings are used for things like increasing shelf life and making the product more attractive, but we reckon you'll just be so excited to see our balls on shelf that you won't need shiny coatings.

Right...?

But really that's not the cool bit anyway. The best bit about our packaging is the dispenser.

Incrediballs are designed to be customisaball to your tastes. So rather than one big tablet, you can add however many balls you want from balls-to-the-wall flavour, to just a taste. Our recommendations are below, but you know what, you do you.

This is where our Incredihole (maybe... not?) comes in handy. Simply pull open the tab, pour out however many balls you want, then retuck it in to pop in your bag.

It's a bit like a Nerds box really.

And because they are so small, we've popped QR codes on the boxes too. With more info on how to use them, what each flavour tastes like and some recipes.

So there you go. Our boxes are magic because they are so boring really.

Well, yes and no.

Incrediballs are the only plastic-free, home-compostable drinks in the world, because of the new green technology inside the tablet itself.

And while there are other things that make Incrediballs different (and we’ll talk about them in other articles), it's kinda the whole point that they are plastic-free.

But yes, they are an effervescent tablet. Like a Berocca for example (though they do taste quite a lot different...).

Why other effervescent tablets need plastic

Effervescent tablets work because they contain two types of ingredients:

• An acid (like citric acid or tartaric acid), and

• A base (like sodium bicarbonate).

When you add them to water, they react together (an acid-base reaction), releasing carbon dioxide gas. This is the fizzing you get when you drop them in water (although remember, this is only slight, they aren't fizzy like a can of soda).

The problem is both acids and bases are hygroscopic.
Meaning they love water. They suck it out of the air if they can.

That is a problem because the acid-base reaction can start if there is enough moisture in the air - even without you adding the tablet to water yourself. When that happens, you end up with a sad, sticky, partially reacted tablet that does not work properly anymore.

Not exactly a great customer experience and it tends to make the retailer cross too.

To prevent that, most companies wrap their tablets in heavy-duty plastic. Often inside more plastic.
Maybe inside a plastic tub, wrapped again in a plastic seal. You get the idea.

Enter co-crystal technology

It sounds fancy, but it is actually a simple idea that took a long time for very clever people to perfect.

Instead of blocking out moisture with more and more plastic, we changed the structure of the tablet itself.

Incrediballs use co-crystal technology: the citric acid is combined with nicotinamide (better known as vitamin B3 or niacinamide, if you are on skintok).

Together, they form a more stable, structured crystal. This crystal stabilises the acid, making it much less reactive with the water in the air. They still work exactly as you want them to when you add water - because it's not so stable it doesn't react at all.

But sitting on the shelf in your house, or the supermarket, they just, well, sit there. No plastic needed.

So there you go. An insight into the world of stable balls.

Any questions, let us know.

Some Frequently Asked Questions (FAQ’s) we’ve received so far.

→ Is there caffeine in the cola?
Nope. Classic Cola is caffeine-free. Good for late nights or afternoons (or all day really it’s bloody delicious) . But we’re playing with some more energising options for future flavours. Watch this space…

→ Will the grapefruit flavour interfere with medications?
Nope! Don’t worry - this is a big concern but the compounds in real grapefruit that cause drug interactions (called furanocoumarins) aren’t in our Tangy Grapefruit. So, sip away safely!

→ What time are you launching? What if I miss it?!
Don’t stress – we’re making a decent amount of stock and won’t be vague about timing. You’ll get a heads up so you’re not refreshing the website in a panic. However, our earliest supporters (yes, that’s you) will get a headstart on the website as a thank you 💚

Incrediballs are actually too small to contain enough sugar to even taste it, so we use a few different sweeteners instead.

We offer different types because taste is personal, and everyone has their own preferences so we'll be introducing more options over time, but for this first launch in just a few weeks' time, we are using sucralose and stevia.

Don't panic though - our testers are adamant there is no weird bitter aftertaste.

Pear & Grapefruit are with stevia, Cola & Orange are with sucralose.

More on stevia in another blog, for now let's chat sucralose.

We chose sucralose because it's the best way to get that full-fat, sugary delicious taste for things like cola (sorry, stevia you just can't quite do it).

But we did know that this would put some people off. And fair enough.
Because there’s a lot of fear mongering, misinformation, and panic-inducing headlines out there about it... which is odd when scientists repeatedly prove it's harmless. So, what does the actual science say?

And just to be clear, we don’t put anything in our drinks without doing our homework (and a lot of it). Our founder is an actual scientist, and we (with our manufacturers - also scientists) take safety and quality extremely seriously.

What Is Sucralose?

Sucralose is an artificial sweetener that’s about 600 times sweeter than sugar but has zero calories because the body doesn’t metabolise it for energy.

It’s made by modifying sucrose (which is just sugar) through a process that replaces three hydroxyl (-OH) groups with chlorine atoms. Now before you panic at the idea of chlorine atoms, do you know what else has those? Table salt.

This tweak makes sucralose sweet like sugar but undigestible, so it passes through the body without affecting blood sugar levels. You rapidly excrete about 85% of sucralose.

It’s also pH-stable, making it ideal for acidic drinks like sodas, and is commonly found in soft drinks, flavoured water, protein powders, and sugar-free foods.

It also doesn't have that weird bitter aftertaste that some sweeteners have - you know the one I mean - that weird metallic-y or chemical-y finish. Our drinks don't have that.

Sucralose has been extensively studied for decades, with thousands of studies and sure, it's not perfect, but the key with everything is the magical phrase... 'the dose makes the poison'.
Sucralose is approved in over 100 countries, has been used since the late 1990s. It's been approved by:

• Food Standards Australia New Zealand (FSANZ)

• US Food and Drug Administration (FDA)

• European Food Safety Authority (EFSA)

• World Health Organization (WHO) - just to name a few.

These organisations have all reviewed the research and set an acceptable daily intake of 5 mg per kg of body weight - which is way more than you’d ever realistically consume from drinks alone. And it's important to note this is a safety threshold, meaning you could consume this amount every day for a lifetime without expected adverse effects. The ADI represents an amount 100 times less than the quantity of sucralose found to achieve a no-observed-adverse-effect-level (NOAEL) in toxicology studies.

If you weighed 70kg, you'd have to drink about 9 cans of a diet soft drink every day to hit this level. Most people drink nowhere near that much in a day (unless you’re in some kind of extreme soft drink marathon, in which case, we have questions).

Again, dose makes the poison.

“But I heard sucralose is bad for you?”

Understood. There is a lot of that going around at the moment. So, let's look at some of the more common concerns.

1. “Sucralose messes with your gut microbiome.”
In normal amounts, sucralose doesn’t appear to have significant or lasting impact on gut bacteria. Some studies have looked at extremely high doses (we’re talking amounts way beyond what’s in any food or drink), but even then, the effects were minimal and most importantly - temporary. A lot of the food we consume effects our microbiome (as you'd expect). Eat more fibre!

Unless you’re chugging industrial-strength sucralose by the gallon, you’re fine. As always, the devil is in the dosage. Even water can kill you if you drink too much of it.

2. “Sucralose raises blood sugar.”
Actually, no - at least, not for most people. Studies show that sucralose doesn’t spike blood sugar or insulin levels in healthy people. However, some research suggests that in certain groups - like people with severe obesity who don’t regularly consume artificial sweeteners - there might be a small effect. So that is worth paying attention to if you fall in that category. But for the vast majority, sucralose is a solid alternative for cutting sugar without messing with blood glucose.

3. “Sucralose turns toxic when heated.”
This claim started from a study showing that sucralose can break down at extremely high temperatures (we’re talking over 98°C). Later studies clarified that this only happens in extreme conditions, not in normal cooking or baking. Regulators have reviewed the evidence and still say sucralose is safe for everyday use.
And either way, unless you were planning to fry your Incrediballs in a pan (which, please don’t), this is a total non-issue.

4. "Sucralose causes cancer."
Not according to a meta-analysis of the many studies so far (in the sources below).

The Bottom Line

We wouldn't (and legally can't, even if we were super villains) put anything in our drinks that isn’t safe.

But the key is we keep abreast of all new research out there to ensure that nothing comes up that may cause concern.

Sucralose is one of the most researched sweeteners out there. The bulk of evidence supports its safety when consumed within normal limits.

If you’re still not keen, that's totally fine! That's why we have stevia-based options, and we're exploring some new options in our next range...

Expect more posts soon breaking down all the science behind Incrediballs.

Got thoughts? Questions? Wild opinions on sweeteners? Send them through.

Sources & Further Reading

Critical safety review: ScienceDirect
Gut health: PubMed
Effect on glucose metabolism: PubMed
Review on non-carcinogenicity: PubMed
Glycemic & endocrine response review: PubMed
Metabolism effects meta-analysis: ScienceDirect
Study on potential chlorination byproducts: PubMed
General rundown: Food Insight

Most of the fun and creative bits (formulating, packaging, branding - the good stuff) are behind us, which is my favourite part. Now it’s things like coding, which is not my idea of a good time 🙃

Then I had hand surgery and now I can’t type properly. Oh the fun of startups!

How I Plan My Businesses

Turns out, when I’m stuck at home and mildly high (prescribed painkillers only) I have great business ideas. Well, I think they’re great.
Three ideas, actually. All for the next Incredi-things I want to build.

People are often interested in how I come up with ideas - well, whilst I maintain that an idea is the easy bit, my process is basically this:
Step 1. Notice: a problem caused by exploitative or destructive practices in a business or industry (this is the easy bit).
Step 2. Ask: could it be fixed, or improved, by changing the supply chain, paying people a fair price, removing plastic and excess packaging, changing the product formulation or structure and so on.
Step 3. Ignore anyone who says it can’t be done until you prove them wrong.

Because business has caused so many of the problems we’re facing - socially, environmentally. But it’s also one of the best tools to fix them (but it has to be done kindly, ethically - in other words, not business as usual).

So, if you’re following along (as I know some of you are) because you too want to use business to change the world, have a look around. Once you start seeing how unethical, or nonsensical, or inefficient things are, well, the ideas flow easily.
Even easier if you're bored, horizontal, and legally medicated.

Things You Want to Know

Some Frequently Asked Questions (FAQ’s) we’ve received so far.

→ Is there caffeine in the cola?
Nope. Classic Cola is caffeine-free. Good for late nights or afternoons (or all day really it’s bloody delicious) . But we’re playing with some more energising options for future flavours. Watch this space…

→ Will the grapefruit flavour interfere with medications?
Nope! Don’t worry - this is a big concern but the compounds in real grapefruit that cause drug interactions (called furanocoumarins) aren’t in our Tangy Grapefruit. So, sip away safely!

→ What time are you launching? What if I miss it?!
Don’t stress – we’re making a decent amount of stock and won’t be vague about timing. You’ll get a heads up so you’re not refreshing the website in a panic. However, our earliest supporters (yes, that’s you) will get a headstart on the website as a thank you 💚

And Finally… Speaking of Plastic

I don’t talk much about my passion project, Now That’s What I Call Green, in these emails. But it’s a big part of why I do any of this.

I love ethical business and creating new ways to rid the world of plastic. But that’s because I've always loved science and finding out as much as possible about the world we live in more. It’s all fascinating.

And right now? Science literacy and trust are at an all-time low. We used to value experts and evidence. Now it’s whoever shouts the loudest that gets heard.

Take microplastics. We’re just starting to understand how bad it might be - and already, the early signs aren’t great. So I wanted to discuss the facts with an actual expert.

5% of our brains are now plastic?!

Not quite.

If you’ve seen the headlines claiming we’ve got a teaspoon of plastic in our brains, just remember that media prioritise clicks first and scientific rigour… maybe not at all.

So, I talked to microplastics expert Dr Olga Pantos, to understand what’s actually known at this stage, and what’s clickbait fiction. Because while some claims are exaggerated, the truth is still pretty grim. Plastic is in our water, our food, our air… and yeah, our cells.
Recycling isn’t the solution (though please do keep recycling as it’s all we have for now), ultimately we need to stop with unnecessary plastic.

You can listen to this episode here.

Mā te wā, see you next week.

Brianne.