How Club-Mate built a cult following without ever running an ad
Born in Bavaria and adopted by Berlin’s techno and hacker scenes, Club-Mate is taking its herbal, caffeinated product abroad – without spending a cent on marketing.
In the early 2000s, Monocle first encountered Club-Mate in Berlin. It tasted unlike anything that we had ever encountered: herbal and slightly medicinal, with the briskness of something engineered to keep you awake. “You’ll get used to it,” promised the gaucho figure on the bottle. And we did. In the techno and hacker scenes, it spread quickly thanks to a caffeine content about twice that of Coca-Cola – a useful pick-me-up.
More recently it has begun travelling more confidently abroad. In London, bottles have appeared in independent grocer Nourished Communities. “What’s interesting is how Club-Mate cuts across partygoers, health-conscious customers and even tech bros,” says its founder, Rollo Millership. He attributes this to the drink’s ability to tick several boxes. It’s low in sugar and offers a natural hit of caffeine. “The fact that it’s under the radar adds to its cult-like mystique,” says Millership.
The company behind the drink is something of a mystery too. It doesn’t give sit-down interviews or allow factory visits, though it is, in correspondence with Monocle, very responsive. “We follow a no-marketing strategy, aiming to win people over solely through taste and quality,” says a spokesperson.
The drink is derived from South American yerba-mate shrub leaves, which have long been brewed into a stimulating tea. In 1924 a German pharmacist turned it into a carbonated soft drink called Sekt-Bronte. Some 20 years later, drinks merchant G Latteyer licensed it. Then, in 1994, Latteyer’s son-in-law sold the licence to Loscher brewery in Bavaria, which renamed it Club-Mate and it began its slow journey towards becoming a cult hit. The brewery is said to export Club-Mate to more than 60 countries but how the caffeinated soft drink travelled so far without any marketing is something that even the brewery cannot quite fathom.
Club-Mate comes in seven varieties – probably a response to a growing field of competitors. Most drinkers, though, stick with the original, whose decades of subcultural credibility are harder to copy than its recipe.
club-mate.de
Further reading:
From Crodino to Jarritos: The world’s most beloved soft drinks
