Alcohol with a difference: the Freising start-up wants to compete with beer and cocktails with “Ocean Drip”.

Created: 05/05/2022, 12:00 p.m

By: Magdalena Hoecherl

Small, but mighty: Tobias Meyer (right) from Freising and his buddy Thomas Erlenbach produce a miniature alcoholic beverage (here a prototype).

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The Freising start-up Ozean Drip has developed a drink that wants to compete with beer and cocktails - and is hardly larger than a stamperl.

Freising

– In the USA it has become indispensable for a few years, but it is still hardly known in Germany: Hard Seltzer, in German: hard sparkling water.

This does not mean the water hardness, which is quite high in Freising, but water that contains alcohol.

And with that, Tobias Meyer (26) from Freising and his buddy Thomas Erlenbach (28) want to expand the beverage market in this country.

The two got to know each other during their master's degree in Frankfurt am Main, Technology and Management.

That's how the idea for her start-up came about, says Meyer.

“It was 2019. I noticed that this whole hard seltzer thing is going through the roof in the US.

Low-calorie alcohol was in great demand there, and there were even delivery problems.” In Europe, on the other hand, the term was hardly known.

"But we thought to ourselves: If it's so well received there, why not here too?"

First batch bottled in summer 2020

So the two of them stood in the kitchen with the fine scale and experimented.

"But we failed miserably, despite Thomas' experience in the beverage industry," admits Meyer.

So they decided to work with a product development company in Mainz.

After months of testing and tinkering, they will fill the first batch in summer 2020.

The result: 30 milliliters of beverage preparation with 70 percent alcohol from the Austrian company Prinz, low in calories and with a natural lime flavor.

“You simply pour that into half a liter of sparkling water and you have the perfect summer drink,” says Meyer.

(By the way: everything from the region is now also available in our regular Freising newsletter.)

The drink is primarily intended for anyone who likes to drink alcohol but also wants to watch their diet.

"Half a liter of Ocean Drip has half the calories of half a beer." The Freisinger product differs in taste from the classic hard seltzer: "We don't obtain the alcohol from fermentation and we don't use wine-based alcohol either.

So it just tastes like water with a light squeeze of lime,” explains Meyer.

So far there is nothing comparable in this form in Germany.

"A lot of people don't like the taste of alcohol that much - but consider the effect it has in moderation." That's the practical thing anyway: "Alcohol dehydrates, and water is good for hangovers.

So it certainly doesn't hurt that you always drink half a liter of water at the same time." The size is also an advantage:

There is no need for special storage capacity in the supermarket and customers do not have to carry anything heavy.

"Compact, light, refreshing," summarizes Meyer.

There are no limits to the use of Ozean Drip: “The people who are already testing it do the wildest things.

From cocktails to slushi ice cream, everything was there,” says the Freisinger, who, like his friend, works in management consulting.

In the future, however, the two want to expand their start-up even further.

"We're already working on other flavors."

Good to know

You can buy Ocean Drip (four times 30 milliliters for 11.90 euros) online at ozeandrip.de and at Rewe in the Freisinger Schlüterhallen.

There will also be a tasting on Saturday, May 7th.

You can find more current news from the district of Freising at Merkur.de/Freising.