The decadence of Canada’s latest AF marketplace: Sansorium
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(Sansorium)
The newest no- and low-alcohol marketplace in Canada is an elegant party celebrating all our sensory delights, and already Canadians are proving that this is exactly what we’ve been craving.
Vancouver-based Sansorium opened its virtual doors on Sept. 6, and its founders, sisters Fiona Hepher and Sarah Hepher, and mom Kathryn Hepher, are already blown away by consumer response.
“We're already at the warehouse packing orders as much as possible,” Fiona Hepher tells SGCF. “We're getting new boxes to fit new product sizes.” Launch day, in other words, was a success and there’s nowhere to go but up. The Hephers aren’t amateurs, they know what they’re doing, and what they’re doing resonates with Canadians.
The name Sansorium is an elegant play on words. “[We’re] an emporium of beverages that are beautiful and pleasurable without alcohol, sans alcohol,” Hepher says. The brand is a celebration of feeling itself, “the feeling of having all your senses alive while you're awake and not trying to depress them or not trying to dampen them,” she explains. This ethos is grounded in a complementary modern, art-deco design.
The mother-daughter team wants to show Canadians that it’s possible to enjoy epicurean decadence without losing out on elegance or any sensory aspect itself. This mission began in 2020, when Kathryn started her alcohol-free journey.
“[Kathryn would] send my dad out, running around to all these different stores, just to have her favorite little collection [of alcohol-free wines] for a little dinner or Thanksgiving or Christmas dinner,” Hepher says. “By the end of the year, [Kathryn] was like, I think there's something missing.” What was missing was a one-stop-shop containing all the good wines that a person needed. Kathryn found that in addition to good bevvies being scattered across various stores, they also didn’t measure up to her refined palate. The family decided to create their own space, and Sansorium was born.
“We started looking at different products that were already here and we noticed that there are so many more cool and innovative brands outside of Canada that haven't landed yet,” Hepher says. “So it was a pretty early decision for us to become importers and take the initiative on approaching bands that we believe will do well in Canada and helping them come into the country.”
(Sansorium)
Now, Sansorium is working on growing its already refined selection of wines, spirits, mixers, beers, and ciders. The market stocks brands like Odd Bird, Noughty, Grüvi, Free Spirits, Lyre’s, Red Racer and many more.
The founders have a keen brand selection process. Hepher demonstrates this with wine as an example.
“We looked for products that were really focused on creating body and helping the flavor and the aroma of the wine stay and remain after the de-alcoholization process,” she says. “If you go with an unripened grape, you'll get a lower sugar output and therefore you'll get the more dry wine, which is what people are usually looking for in a good wine. So we really did a big taste test and decided not to have a number of brands that didn't meet the mark. And that's probably just because of where they're at in their innovation and what technology they have.”
Currently, the Sansorium team is working on moving across the country to find the best beers, ciders, and spirits. As much as the Hephers are devoted to importing the best into Canada, they are also committed to finding the best of the best in alcohol-free made within Canada.
You might have noticed that Sansorium’s messaging is geared toward abundance and choice — a wealth of possibility and celebration of fullness — and this is intentional.
“What we decided early on was that there were a lot of places doing a real dry message,” Hepher says, “While I love sobriety, I believe that a lot of people weren't there yet, or maybe would never be fully sober and needed a place where they could have the acceptance and the freedom to still drink alcohol, but also have options where they could go and find alcohol-free products that either taste similar or as good to their alcohol counterparts.”
“[Sansorium] is for people who do drink, who are going to continue drinking, who enjoy alcohol and don't have a problem with taking it out of their life,” Hepher says. “And for those who [...] really just want to stay dry.”
