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Bionade, a popular German organic soft drink, has launched in the UK. Following on from its recent introduction to the Australian market, the family-run business will sell Bionade in "top bars across London" for £2.95 a bottle (33cl).

Enotria, known for distributing high-quality wines, has decided to take on Bionade in the UK simply because it's so different: "It's not just another fizzy, syrup-based soft drink," said Alison Levett, Enotria's Chief Executive. "Bionade is a more sophisticated product with genuine provenance."

Fundamentally different from other soft drinks that are usually produced synthetically, and contain either lots of added sugar or artificial sweeteners, Bionade is a completely organic product created by the fermentation of water and malt. In a special process utilising bacterium kombucha, the malt sugar isn't converted into alcohol, but into gluconic acid, an ingredient which occurs naturally in honey.

In an interview with The Independent last year, Bionade MD Peter Kowalsky said: "We've had people assume that Bionade must be some low-alcohol beer, especially because it comes in what looks like a beer bottle. And in Germany, we do have a lot of beer drinkers that drink Bionade when they can't drink beer, because it has that similar malty, tangy taste they recognise. But it is a health drink."