I was just a judge in the first ever Great British Make Off competition for young designers of the future. I was working in the food technology category.
The product I voted first place were two brilliant juices, marketed under the Spa Dew label. My job was to design it with the entrants and get it all marketed out. You can see their presentation here on YouTube.
The winning juices were invented by some girls from Saint Benedict Catholic Voluntary Academy in Derby. Both recipes included 5 different fruits or vegetables, and the girls did research on the nutritional benefits of each.
They decided to create a sports drink packaged in a cycling friendly container – very on trend these days, where everyone is more health-conscious and cycling is enjoying a boom in popularity.
We did two juices – Berry Blast and Berry Burst. One was an energy boost to keep you going the last one was more a citrus refreshing drink to pick you up.
The first recipe was a juice – beetroot, red grape, blackberries, apple juice for base and then carrot. The second was orange juice as a base, more a smoothie type base, strawberries, blueberries, avocado, lime and natural yoghurt.
The BBC picked up on the product in an article online. They said:
“Top chef Steve Walpole who helped them refine their range of drinks during a “very messy” day in his kitchen, described their idea as “bang on trend”.
“If you are looking at it as part of a range from an entrepreneurial point of view, you would get some serious interest,” he added.”
