Meet the young innovators behind these karmic mocktails

A local family-owned and operated fruit drink business that took a kick in the teeth because of the pandemic is now sparkling with fizz.

Farming Karma has weathered the COVID storm and is now offering its pioneering quality taste to an increasingly appreciative customer pallet. It will soon dramatically increase production while lending a hand to other local producers.

“We hit the market in January 2020, then COVID happened, “ Avi Gill told Kelowna10 at their multi-faceted home base in Rutland. Gill says his business card has 'President' written on it but he does a little bit of everything around the modest-sized operation that's set to scale up in a very big way.

“At the time [of the pandemic] we only had single apple soda cans; we didn’t even have a box for them. No one was going out for lunches and things plummeted,” he recalls.

But three years later things have turned sharply upward. The company launched a range of non-alcoholic mocktails last month to add to their popular fruit sodas and ‘Spirit’ line that came along in 2020/2021.

And this summer they’ll switch on a state-of-the-art production facility that will enable them to go from 6,500 cans a day to over 70,000.

“We turned the [COVID] negative into a positive and came up with new flavours and won the [2020] local Innovative Product of the Year award year through Sobeys,” Gill said.

The quartet of new mocktail flavours are: Conscious Cosmo (rhubarb and orange zest); Mellow Mimosa (mango); Mindful Mule (lime and ginger); and Musing Mojito (mint and lime).

The titles given to the mocktails are synonymous with the ethic behind the business, which is named after dad Karma Gill, who with his wife Kuku, have fruit farmed the area for three decades.

“The mocktails all have karma-related ‘Do Good’ names, very clean ingredients, and it’s a great drink for all ages,” Gill explained.

“These days people are trying to be more intentional about their alcoholic consumption and this way they have more choices,” Avi’s wife, company vice president, and CFO, Binny Boparai said. “There are traditional beverages here in the Okanagan that are known and very well-received like the wineries, but people want more choice,” she added.

Their drinks are available at some wineries as a non-alcoholic option for designated drivers, for example.

And Boparai highlighted the benefits other businesses will enjoy thanks to their new equipment.

Sharing good karma

“The new canning facility will allow us to turn the product around more quickly and also allow us to co-pack with others in our community who are looking to innovate cool beverage products,” she said.

The Farming Karma business layout in Rutland includes an RV park, dog park, cherry orchard and tasting room. The company also hosts a platform for the community to recognize those who deserve to receive some good karma. There is a link to their ‘Do Good’ initiative on their website. They also offer tours and visits to community groups and schools.

With the days of COVID largely in the rear-view mirror, the business is set to turn a big corner. Their product is set for all Superstore shelves this summer and the new production facility will help them make the volume needed to expand beyond western Canada further out east.

Boparai believes things have happened for a reason.

“You always have to look at silver linings with business a well as life,” “It was a big blow at the start of our business careers, but we had so much free time and we decided to innovate and come up with new products. In a way it was a blessing in disguise.”