Vi-Source — From Fruit to Soda

With our sourcing trips, we travel to the countries of our suppliers. The aim is to establish selected, long-term and fair business relationships. We each get a deep insight into the working culture of our suppliers, get to know the local work processes better and, of course, enjoy the country's beautiful cultures and landscapes.

Do you still remember our adventurous journey through the jungles of Cameroon in search of the caffeinated kola nut? (The latter contributions)

We have now left the jungle behind us and dedicate ourselves to the lush citrus world of Sicily in the following blog. We get the lemon and blood orange juice for our Vivi sodas from an organic farming cooperative that cultivates their plantations around Etna.

When the leaves fall from our trees in autumn, Sicily's citrus gardens start to glow in yellow, orange and red. The long-awaited harvest season for our lemons and blood oranges begins. It's hard to imagine that the citrus harvest season turns into winter when our fields are covered with white snow. When we flew to Sicily last February, almost at the end of the harvest season for our blood oranges - Tarrocco - and our lemons - Primofiore -, it awoke us with spring feelings. From November to April, the fertile region south of Catania has the perfect climate for the fruits.

The plantations consist of miles of rows of trees, from whose deep green leaf roofs light up the fruits. During these months, they shape the wonderful image of the region...

harvesting

It started on Monday morning after we arrived. We were all excited about our first day of harvesting at Il Biviere Farm. At dawn, at a pleasant 18 degrees and rising sun, we arrived at the farm fields. On this day, the mission was — to harvest Tarocco blood oranges. They had to be on the shelves at Coop 4 days later. Very impressive when you consider that the organic blood oranges in Coop were still hanging on trees in Sicily less than a week before. The farm must therefore be able to act very flexibly and deliver on time immediately after ordering.

The vibe this morning was just as we had imagined in our dreams. Before the start, a cigarette was smoked and then the harvest workers disappeared into the glowing green, red fields. A fresh breeze blew through the leaves of the plantation covered with blood oranges and we started. The seasoners were a well-rehearsed team. Structured in two teams, with their small harvesting scissors in their right hand and a bucket in their left hand, they filled the blue and red colored harasses within seconds. Italian national songs were sung, laughed and talked to each other across trees. Of course, our beginner skills were a big topic of conversation. In fact, an employee harvests between 900 and 1000 kilos of fruit per hour. We were far from it

It was very interesting that the harvest employees all came from the Sicily region and grew up there. Most of them work at Il Biviere in the citrus season from October to June. In the summer months, you work for other farms, which can also offer fruit in the summer months.

By early afternoon, the desired quantity of blood oranges was picked and brought to the warehouse for processing/sorting.

selection

After the successful harvest in the morning, the truck full of blood oranges was selected. Here, the saying “The eye eats with” plays a pretty strong role. Because, depending on customer requirements, only perfect-looking fruit may be delivered. The taste of the fruit has no influence on this. It is often the case that exactly the fruits that have not grown in perfect shape have the finest flavor profile. Good for us. The imperfect organic fruits are collected and then delivered to the juicery in Palermo.

At Il Biviere, the selection process is carried out in harmonious collaboration with machines and the human eye until the “Beauties” have been sorted out and are ready to be shipped to the markets.

Juicery

After selecting the farm, the fruits are delivered to the juicery in Palermo. The juicery receives the fruit and runs it through several process steps in a highly professional plant. The pictures show the heart of the complex. This is because it kills two flies at once at the same time. The fruit juice is squeezed out of the fruit and the essential oils are squeezed out of the peel. The fruit juices are then either processed into a concentrate or bottled directly. The oils are used for a wide range of cosmetics and naturopathic practices.

Structured planning is essential for the Juicery to be able to operate all desired organic labels such as Demeter, BIO-Suisse, EU-Suisse, etc. The labels with the strictest guidelines must be pressed first thing in the morning. Until then, in the evening, the fruit is pressed without certificates. The machine is then cleaned overnight and is ready again for the next morning.

We obtain a fruit juice concentrate, which is obtained from an organic farming cooperative in the region. Il Biviere is one of them. The organic fruit juice concentrate is then delivered directly to us in Switzerland and is ready to be filled into our sodas.

Vivi Manufaktur

The organic fruit juice concentrates of our lemons and blood oranges from Sicily are delivered directly to us in Switzerland. The fruit juice concentrate is mixed with the ginger concentrate and the cane sugar. The result is an organic syrup — ready for bottling. The empty glass bottles are washed and mixed with the syrup, water and carbon dioxide. The bottles are then closed with a crown cap and placed back in the washed harass by machine. The sodas are ready to be sold to consumers.

The result: NATURAL AND HIGHLY TRANSPARENT ORGANIC SOFT DRINKS — PRODUCED IN SWITZERLAND

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