We recently connected with Peter Miletich and have shared our conversation below.

Peter, appreciate you joining us today. How did you come up with the idea for your business?

Making food and drinks is something that I have been doing for a long time and which gives me a creative outlet. Creating products also allows me an opportunity to dive into marketing/branding and product development, which I am fascinated by.
My background ranges from food trucks to fine dining and everything in between. This in my opinion has uniquely positioned me to make products that are elevated in nature and sophisticated in quality, yet simple enough to appeal and feel approachable to all walks of life.
I don’t know who said it or if anyone did, but I think as entrepreneurs we make products that are solving some issue that we have in our lives first which makes us fall in love with the process of making the product and then we share that love with others.
The issue at hand for me was that I wanted to have a drink that is light and flavorful, but at the same time not overly sweetened and not carbonated, as well as without caffeine. This was something that I was thinking about but not really pursuing at the time.
As I mentioned I had a history in the food industry, and I had restaurant, where I would make crafted lemonades with all kinds of wacky flavors…like mango cilantro or dark cherry aloe or ginger basil etc. I was always using herbs and botanicals because they have a lot of flavor, but I wasn’t focusing on any health benefits they may have, or to be honest I dint even know if they did. Making delicious things was my number one goal, still is.
So, I was making these lemonades and people kept saying how they are not too sweet, I must have heard that thousands of times. And they always had a big smile on their face like I just did a favor of some sort. I was just making drinks that are appealing to my palate.
Once Covid hit my life changed and really took notice what I was putting into my body. I started thinking there are a lot of people like me who watch how much sugar they are consuming and there is nothing out there that
I knew I could make a really tasty drink but the challenge was – can I get them to be very low in sugar and at the same time to be very flavorful?
Enter, NotTooSweet Beverages.
It took almost a year to make and all my knowledge that I have amassed from my entire life. From when I was growing up as a kid and eating certain flowers because they had all this succulent nectar, to all my cooking knowledge on how to make a balanced dish. And all the fine dining experiences I had and especially in making cocktails.
You see, these drinks are more than the sum of its parts, they are beyond the ingredients synergized together – they are a delicious result of all my life experiences.

Peter, before we move on to more of these sorts of questions, can you take some time to bring our readers up to speed on you and what you do?

My story started at an early age as a fixture in my grandmother’s kitchen as a official taster.
Fast forward I spent half of my life in kitchens with very eclectic cuisines. At one point I literally had every possible position in the restaurant industry and decided to start my own business.
This all started with a mobile food and beverage business that culminated to a brick-and-mortar location.
The official concept was food from around the world inside of a taco (or a rice bowl) and super creative lemonades. Dishes like Bulgogi Tacos and Tikka Masala Rice Bowls with Mango Cilantro and Dark Cherry Aloe lemonades were a big hit, and we even got voted as #1 World Cuisine restaurant by our local publication in Sarasota FL.
This is where the Name NotTooSweet has its origins.
You see, I have heard those words “not too sweet” thousands of times by our customers, which I was unconsciously registering, and eventually it dawned on me that I should create a drink called NotTooSweet, and honor all the people that enjoyed our products.
So, with that in mind I decided to forgo the rigors of a food business to the new and exciting frontiers of the beverage industry.
This transition has taken number of years to develop, and Covid was raging at this time, which has had a great influence on the way I viewed my own health and my food & beverage consumption.

I decided that I should make a drink that is as low in sugar as possible (naturally sweetened) but very flavorful at the same time.
I dug into my experience in fine dining and more specifically craft martinis, for ingredients and technical execution, that will g procure most interesting pairings and flavors. Balancing the said flavors will be something that I knew I could achieve and I was confident that I can develop a delicious beverage, but will it be possible to make it low sugar and naturally sweetened?
That was the challenge.
It took a better part of a year the create the formulas, but at the end I was thrilled with the results which went beyond even my own very high expectations. I call it the most delicious/least sweet beverage out in the market today.
The happy coincidence and the by-product of using botanical ingredients to make our products made them off-the-charts beneficial to health of the consumer. This was something that my sister, who is a chemist/herbalist and a wellness expert, has stressed that I should really pay especial attention to because the post Covid world we live in now is very aware of what they are putting into their bodies, and looking for all natural products like these.

From years of experience since the inception of my products I have learned that that world is littered with products that pose as beneficial to consumers wellness, all while providing no proof of that, and at the same time artificially sweetened to a point that it is actually harmful to the body and definitely to one’s palate.
There are very few beverage products that stand out from others and actually taste not-the-same as the majority of products available.
Our products are one of those selected few.
They are made with simple ingredients executed to a very high level, just like any dish a chef would make, and any health-conscious individual, such as myself and millions of others, would want to make it part of their daily hydration.

Okay – so how did you figure out the manufacturing part? Did you have prior experience?

I should first say I had ZERO knowledge about the industry I was getting into. If there is less than zero, that is where I would have been. I could literally write a book (which I might one day) on how much I have learned about the beverage industry in the last few years,

I spent the first year literally learning the most basic things, like what bottle and especially what cap I needed for my bottles, The cap took over two years actually to find and it just happened by accident recently that I found the cap and bottle that fit perfectly together that my co-packer can use and are the size and shape I want.

I would have to say that I am extremely fortunate that my co-packer is an hour away from where I have my business. They are a one stop shop for all my needs from formulation to packaging and certification.
Nearest one that I came across is on the other side of the country in California. I have looked and asked all over, as the process that we use to bottle and pasteurize our products is rare. Most company do not use glass and if they do, they do not use our cooking or pasteurizing method, or labeling method. A lot of different components come into play when manufacturing beverage products. Especially better for you products. Most products out there are in cans or plastic or they just mix ingredients together.
We actually infuse our ingredients through specific temperature/time and pressure. We also source the best all natural ingredients from around the country.

There is the whole process of creating a label and how to do that. I am happy to say that after a long time the next production will have the new label that was needed from beginning, but I didn’t know what I didn’t know and I had to learn about my products through time as well as through the eyes of my consumer.

There is the matter of scaling, which is where we are now. What is needed, how to do it, where to find who to talk to and how to make connections. This will be an ongoing challenge as we grow, and not grow too fast.
For the lack of the better word it’s kind of like going to war. You need to have your entire supply chain figured out as you are taking over territories.
There is only certain amount of shelf space that the retailers try to maximize their profits from so there is a consistent battle with invisible and visible competitors.
We are fortunate that our product does not have any true comps in the market, as most beverages are not in glass, are carbonated, and also majority have either high or zero sugar.
This is mostly good as we stick out from other beverages in the isle, but at the same time being unique requires more marketing and educating of the public on the new concept of crafted botanical teas that we are trailblazing.
We are in the isles with better for you products with kombuchas (which there are a million of), cold pressed juices which are very high in sugar, and obviously other teas. As far as teas our do not have caffeine and have very different packaging, flavors, texture and mouth feel.

Lastly, I would say that I am grateful to Seth and Barry, the creators of Honest Tea for writing a book called “Mission in the bottle” about their experience of making a low sugar product, which I consider to be like a Bible of sorts and a continuous reference point in my journey.
In some ways this is only the beginning of my journey, and the real adventure is about to get on the way.

Can you share a story from your journey that illustrates your resilience?

I am in the one of the most competitive industries possible, beverage industry. There are hundreds or maybe thousands of brands being created and “un-created” every year.
Just to enter the industry alone, requires built-in resilience, and even if all went according to plan it would be a small miracle to end up being successful.
The good news is that I do believe in miracles, and I have time on my side.
My favorite word to describe myself is…tenacious. I am nothing if I am not full of tenacity and someone that keeps coming back and getting up, time after time, until the desired result.

In this case I have this need that I have to make unique and delicious products, and I will figure out a way to bring them to the market.
For a while there I was selling retail products through my food business, which led me to realize that I should be selling wholesale as that way i could reach a far larger audience and have a much larger impact on the world.
I would always say “I would rather sell thousand units to one person, as opposed to thousand people one unit at a time”.

Next would be how to do that, as it would take large capital that I did not have, and knowledge on how to do it, which I also did not have.
I ended up leaving the food and beverage industry and took on a job that I had no passion for doing, but it was challenging and highly lucrative. It required for me to work 100-hour weeks sometimes, and I did it for almost three years all while developing a brand of my own which paved the way to where we are today.

At the same time, I had to learn how to be a better person, better human and a better version of myself. Because that is what it will take to take on a quest of this magnitude.

I feel like I am being guided by destiny and a life current that makes my way for me. I didn’t choose any of this for myself, it was chosen for me. There is no way that I could be doing anything else.

Contact Info:

• Website: https://DrinkNotTooSweet.com
• Instagram: @NotTooSweetLife
• Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/nottoosweetlife/
• Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/peter-miletich-9361b638/
• Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/@NotTooSweetLife