Mixing up new tonics

Mary Pellettieri’s idea for Top Note Tonics sprang from her desire to create “a more sophisticated aperitivo soft drink” with a “slightly bitter” taste. — Photo: Lloyd DeGrane

By Jonathan Black — UIC Alumni Magazine

Not so long ago, Mary Pellettieri (’95 AHS) had a big job at the giant MillerCoors brewery in Milwaukee. She’s still in Milwaukee, but a little harder to find these days on the city’s south side. That’s because she’s on the third floor of an old industrial building called the Lincoln Warehouse that’s been converted into a maze of incubator spaces, many still construction zones that rattle with drilling.

“Six months of stress, but we’re almost done!” Pellettieri said, pointing to the small, but pristine, industrial kitchen.

What Pellettieri has brewing here is something like a revolution in mixers, a line of tonics she hopes will captivate drinkers who are tired of overly sweet colas and predictable fruit flavors. Top Note Tonics is a product of La Pavia Beverage, a company she launched about a year ago with her husband. It is a collection of concentrated syrups that can be mixed with soda water, all crafted with whole herbs and spices, and boasting half the calories of most commercial mixers. The collection is based on “historical botanical tonics and Italian aperitivo sodas,” with the added plus of the digestive benefits of traditional tonics, Pellettieri said.

She’s not alone at Lincoln Warehouse, which is home to three other beverage start-ups, but she has no fear of competition.

“There is no competition,” Pellettieri said. “I’d always liked the idea of a slightly bitter soda, but I couldn’t find a good one. The few out there were mostly from Europe, all developed in the 1960s with ingredients that no one would use to design a drink today. The idea of a more sophisticated aperitivo soft drink was solid, but it needed to be innovated again with fresh materials.”

Pellettieri is no newcomer to the world of brewing. A native of Downers Grove, she earned a UIC master’s degree in environmental and occupational health sciences, capping a special interest in botany and plant biology. She worked for eight years at Chicago’s Goose Island Beer Co. before packing up for Milwaukee and MillerCoors, where she moved from quality services manager, overseeing the lab and packaging, to a senior corporate position in business operations.

“Working for a small company [like Goose Island] is very different,” Pellettieri said. “You have to wear a lot of hats; you’ve got [to have] that entrepreneurial mindset. If no one else is going to do it, I have to do it. With big companies, you’re stripped of that identity — they don’t want you to think you can do it all.”

Pellettieri is comfortable with her entrepreneurial role with La Pavia Beverage, partly because her partner is also her husband, who has long managed the rental property the two own on Chicago’s Northwest Side.

Ironically, Top Note Tonics may not have its strongest appeal in Milwaukee, “which likes a very sweet drink,” Pellettieri said. She sees its popularity and growth spreading out from the coasts, “where there’s more of a movement toward flavorings — sour, bitter, spicy. Those drinks are being produced and selling very well.”

Top Note Tonics is now available at select stores as a concentrated bottled syrup in five flavors — lime, orange, lemon, ginger beer and Indian tonic. Consumers can buy the syrup and mix it with non-flavored soda water in a five-to-one ratio, which is especially appealing to users of home carbonation products such as Soda Stream, Pellettieri said.

Her next goal is to offer a “bag-in-a-box” concentrate — the flavoring that’s dispensed at bar and restaurant soda fountains at the push of a button. Ultimately, she plans to make the product available in a ready-to-drink bottle on retail shelves.

Without corporate deep pockets, Pellettieri has had to be especially creative in finding ways to promote Top Note Tonics at restaurants and tastings. With her Milwaukee kitchen facility finished, she’ll now be able to host small events and demonstrations. That, she is confident, will help spread the word.

The key “is to get the product into consumers’ hands,” Pellettieri said. “Once they taste it, I’ve got a customer.”

Reprinted with permission from UIC Alumni.