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When Cath Lewis started to get arthritis in her hands 12 years ago, she didn’t reach for conventional pain meds. Instead, the biochemistry and nutrition graduate began to research foods that might help ease the inflammation.
“I’ve always been very much inclined towards food as medicine – nutrition is the foundation of our health,” she says. “So I started researching and came across turmeric and its benefits. At that point, I was aware of yellow turmeric powder, but hadn’t seen turmeric root.”
When repeated requests to New World to stock it bore fruit, she swooped on the first box, took it home and started playing with it. The process of developing a palatable way to consume it was far from straightforward, however.
“Fresh turmeric root on its own – well, it’s not delicious – so I had to find how to turn it into a food or beverage that I would enjoy consuming every day,” Lewis says.
“I already had shelves full of foul-tasting powders and supplements, so I knew that wouldn’t work – unless your daily health ritual is something you enjoy, you’re not going to keep it up.
“I tried grinding it, grating it, pounding it – nothing worked … and the mess – ugh!”
Then she started juicing it and, after a great deal of experimentation with flavours found a concentrated blend of fresh turmeric, ginger, NZ lime juice, local bush honey and black pepper was a winning blend.
This was still all for her own benefit, however – Lewis was a food tech teacher at the time and had no intention of becoming a beverage producer. She’d just make up a batch in her kitchen, put it into old bottles and keep it in the fridge.
But then covid happened.
“In the first lockdown, I put a post up on Love Leigh and Matakana Facebook pages offering to do letterbox drops, as it really is helpful for managing symptoms and strengthening immune response.”
She quickly realised that her zingy bright orange ‘Turbo Tonics’ blend was a hit, however, with repeat orders, a sellout stall at the Matakana Farmers’ Market and a retail listing at Bin In Warkworth swiftly following.
“By this stage, I was struggling to balance full time teaching with Turbo Tonics development in my kitchen, filling everything from a jug, and hand-labelling bottles.”
Fast forward to last December, when Lewis was up to 90 retail stockists and nine employees, all while still working out of her basement kitchen in Leigh.
“It was getting to the point where I’d have to turn business away,” she says. “But that was when Daily Organics decided to sell their plant here in Matakana.”
The move to the warehouse and bottling facility behind Premium Real Estate not only means Turbo Tonics now has the capacity to grow further, export and increase its product range – such as new Spiced Turmeric Latte and Turmeric & Kelp Boost powders – they can also now sell direct from their door.
As well as selling her own Turbo Tonics range, Lewis is now stocking a range of Farmers’ Market Favourites, such as free range eggs, salads and honey, on weekdays – mainly so locals don’t have to do battle with the Saturday crowds.
“Turbo Tonics all started with the amazing local community. It’s genuinely grown out of community support, and I’ll always be grateful for that,” she says.
Lewis also acknowledges the critical role of farmers markets – she sells at Matakana and Cliveden every weekend – in acting as incubators for herself and many other local food and beverage producers.
