Cape Cod Ginger
Dick Monroe founded Cape Cod Ginger, producer of a lightly carbonated, raw and organic ginger drink, six years ago, but spent the first four years on research and development. In his words, he had some fun in the kitchen with a SodaStream and lots of ginger juice. Monroe had been a mechanical engineer for 40 years, designing everything from medical devices and paint bristles to hay bale springs and laser etchers. For Cape Cod Ginger, he designed the custom processing machinery that fills 1800-2400 bottles an hour, and partnered with a vegan chef and a chemist to perfect the recipes.
When Monroe was a little boy growing up in Worcester, his aunt made a delicious ginger iced tea that he remembered fondly. While the current product doesn’t contain tea, it is reminiscent of his boyhood memory. The beverage comes in original ginger and five ginger-blended flavors: pomegranate, pineapple, strawberry, passion fruit and mango. The five blends are flavored with organic fruit concentrates. Monroe suggests chilling them to 45 degrees, but says that are fantastic hot as well.
The history of ginger helping with human ills is a long and ancient one. Anti-inflammatory and anti-nausea properties have been proven, while improvements in blood sugar and heart disease risk have had recent positive study results as well. Monroe jokes, “Sometimes I feel like I should travel in a covered wagon with my ‘cure-all elixir’, there are so many benefits!”
The ingredients include cold-pressed organic Peruvian ginger juice, triple-filtered reverse-osmosis carbonated water, citric acid, raw organic cane juice and a plant-based enzyme.
One local retailer, Rendez Vous Café-Creperie in Hyannis, has most flavors available in the shop refrigerator. Barista Gabbi Bielicki tells customers who ask about the ginger juice, “It’s a great locally-made organic product and is good chilled, but even better hot as it clears out sinuses and is totally invigorating.”
The bottles have a six-month shelf life with no refrigeration, and it’s longer if kept cold. Monroe packs the juice in BPA-free plastic returnable bottles to keep shipping weight down and to decrease broken glass on the production line and in the warehouse. They come in 4-packs, 12 bottles to a case. Mixed cases of four original and eight of one blend are available as well. He estimates that they are filling nearly 30,000 bottles a month.
See the website for local availability and direct shipping orders. There’s no downside to drinking some ginger juice, hot or cold. (From personal experience, it is also great as a mixer with rum or vodka.)
