It’s a sweet concoction bottled for the sole purpose of lessening a very bitter situation. Avery Beverage’s Putin Punch is being sold this week with proceeds going to the Ukrainian Red Cross, and the response has been overwhelming.
“I’m here to get Putin’s Punch. We saw it advertised and it’s a go for me,” said Natalie Scott, of Wallingford, who was picking up a six-pack at Avery’s bottling shop in New Britain on Wednesday.
The punch first went on sale Tuesday, but you had to get there early to get some.
“I actually came by yesterday at about like 5:20 p.m. right before closing and they were are all sold out,” said Emily Carman. “I was like nooooo!”
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For Avery, doing themed bottles is nothing new.
“We do these silly little projects all the time,” said owner, Rob Metz.
This project, though, is anything but silly. Despite the cartoon character label, the objective is very serious.
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“We can’t run over there and go fight anybody, but we make soda,” said Metz.
Metz explains that 50 cents from every bottle go to humanitarian relief efforts. In addition to these proceeds, Avery made a preliminary donation of $500, and their customers want to increase that.
“I just really want to help those who need it, and we should all rally together and support in any way that we can,” said Scott.
Throughout the day, a steady stream of people supported the effort, including one woman who drove 45 minutes from Old Lyme.
“It’s fantastic,” said Gail Boughton, of Old Lyme. “All my friends down there, I told them about it so I came up to get it so we’re going to spread it around.”
To meet the demand, sodas were being produced throughout the day Wednesday. Owner Rob Metz doesn’t know exactly how many bottles they’ve sold and only ventures an educated guess of 900 bottles on Tuesday alone.
“A little crazy but we like crazy. That’s what we thrive on here,” he said.
And it’s about to get crazier. Stew Leonard’s grocery store placed an order for the fruity carbonated concoction and it will soon be on their shelves as well.