For years, Canadian neuroscientist Chantelle Kinzel, 35, dreamed of a project that would make it easier for the population to consume refreshing and healthy drinks. That aspiration was never erased from her mind and it was five years ago that she materialized it in the municipality of Tola, Rivas.
Kinzel, along with her husband, is the creator of different drinks that promise to change the health of many people who consume them and have been well received in the national market.
«I came to Nicaragua for the first time in 2017 and I was interested in investing in this project that has been very well accepted by this community of Nahualapa and the entire national market. The formulas are of Canadian and United States origin, we have a strict license for international recipes, there are nine regular drinks of different flavors, and we also process fermented alcoholic beverages,” says Kinzel.
With rivense raw material
The business has generated good acceptance by locals and different businesses in the department, as well as other municipalities in the country. It is located in Plaza Nahualapa in Tola, Rivas.
The entrepreneur assures that they also make healthy food from plants and healthy snacks (foods with vitamins and proteins), but the ones that have gained the greatest demand are fermented drinks. To make these drinks, the fruits are cultivated by producers from the Tola area, or from the municipality of Rivas or from the Island of Ometepe.
Natural drinks are made from fermented tea with natural bacteria and yeasts, generating probiotics from kombucha (fermented tea drink), which help joints and provide natural energy to the body. Likewise, they help detoxify the body, offering different vitamins and mineral antioxidants that provide well-being to those who consume it.
They bet to stay in Nicaragua
Kinzel confesses that he fell in love with the Nicaraguan culture and found a natural way to arouse the curiosity of the Nicaraguans to consume fermented probiotics in healthy foods and drinks such as kombucha.
The fruits selected for your project are mostly local and organic, to some tropical flavors different herbs are added to provide a different flavor.
The neuroscientist assures that holy basil is one of the main and most powerful herbs for the good health of people. Among the fruits used to generate these exotic drinks are mango, watermelon, coyolito, pitahaya, orange, lemon and passion fruit.
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He also explained that mango with turmeric, ginger, hibiscus, pitahaya mixed with holy basil and grapefruit stand out among the most sought-after drinks, producing around nine soft drinks and three alcoholic drinks.
“I decided to stay to add something positive to the culture, bring health and education, because I saw that many Nicaraguans struggle to stay healthy,” he says.
High demand from athletes
Athletes from the different areas of the municipality of Tola and the department of Rivas are the ones who most demand the type of Kinzel drinks, to a large extent fermented drinks, due to the probiotics and great benefits that it can bring to the body.
The businesswoman explained that the fermentation process to obtain the required drink depends on the flavor and its ingredients, but normally it takes two to four weeks. Kinzel also assures that when the project began, two people from the area were working, but currently it has generated employment for eight people from the community.
“First we start the fermentation process, once fermented we take out the liquid that was cultivated and the tea and we proceed to mix it with the different flavors of the fruits that are going to work, and then bottle it,” says Kinzel.
Fermented soft drinks and healthy food
Among the most demanded drinks are mango, turmeric, calala, ginger, hibiscus and pitahaya, in addition to working with alcoholic beverages in an artisanal way, honey wine has been one of the most demanded alcoholic beverages by foreign and national tourists .
“One of the alcoholic beverages is made with watermelon, another has the flavor and aroma of coyolito, and the third is a mixture of lemonade with mint, all three have a 7 percent alcohol content, and are marketed in different municipalities of the country in presentations from 500 to 341 millimeters”, explains the general manager of Nicambucha.
The price of the product depends on the store that sells it, you can find up to five to six dollars, they are completely natural drinks, made with little sugar and natural flavor. According to Kinzel, the deliveries are made every fortnight, traveling to the different municipalities of the country such as León, Managua, Granada, San Juan del Sur and Tola, in the Popoyo and Rivas area.
The businesswoman assures that she processes around 40 to 50 pounds of fruit per week and packs 48 soft drinks in disposable bottles.
By United Voices
