Life is sweet these days for a Kelowna-based syrup maker
The day I stop by Simps Modern Beverage, located in an industrial part of Kelowna, everything is in cheerful chaos. Customers mill around the tiny shop, which is in the process of a makeover; behind the scenes, a small team is furiously packing boxes, answering calls, taking deliveries and sending even more of them out the door, everyone apparently doing at least three things at once.
That was in May; since then, things have only become even busier.
“We just got hit by the whole Buy Canadian thing,” says Gerry Jobe, one of the two founders; the other is Dave Simpson, the “Simps” in the company name. “This has been 10 years of two guys sweating it out and then have the whole country discover you.”
On March 4, the threatened 25 per cent U.S. tariff on Canadian goods went into effect. In return, a deeply offended nation turned its sights and dollars to homegrown products. And Simps was right there waiting.
“Since March we’re at 6,100-per-cent growth as a company,” Jobe says. They’ve added 11 staff, all industry veterans, and have been adding new café and bar customers at a rate of seven a day. “It’s absolutely insane.”
And then, on top of all of that, there’s the whole dirty soda thing.
How it began …
For years, Jobe and Simpson worked behind the bar. Simpson was a pioneer of flair bartending in Canada and along the way owned Kelowna’s Avenue bar, founded Flairfest and co-founded The Bartenders Guild. Jobe is probably best known for his years making farm-to-glass cocktails at RauDz Regional Table, but he’s also been a consultant, educator and brand ambassador.
A decade or so ago, they’d started a sideline making cocktail syrups for other bartenders, using the Okanagan Valley’s micro-seasonal products. “We would buy up everything and do three months of big batching in about two weeks,” Jobe says. “We got really good at making syrup in big formats.”
One day, when they were repping Jack Daniels whiskey, they ended up at a golf tournament for a chain restaurant, hanging with a couple of the managers.
“We were on the 17th hole and they started to get into business, going into their pain points,” he recalls. One of those pain points: paying Red Seal chefs to stir pots of flavoured sugar water at every restaurant in the chain.
Simpson and Jobe crunched the numbers and figured the chain was spending $2 million a year to make cocktail syrups. And, Jobe notes, “That’s just labour costs before you buy sugar and fruit and spices.”
They knew they could make the syrups themselves, easily and profitably. And so Simps Syrups was born.
They didn’t actually start with cocktail syrups, though. They started with the world’s first vegan Caesar mix. Within two months, it was available in 650 locations and Simpson quit his day job to focus on the business full time.
Then they started making coffee syrups. They got a couple of investors and bought them out a few years later. They sold their products to grocery stores, cafés, diners, cocktail bars and the JOEY restaurant chain, which picked up their mint syrup for Mojitos.
Still, every penny went back into the company and researching the next product, and it was still just Jobe and Simpson, up at “the crack of dawn,” doing the best they could.
And then 2025 came along.
The dirty soda thing
Just as the “Buy Canadian” bomb was about to hit, so was a massive pop-culture one: the explosive popularity of the dirty soda.
A combination of soda, coffee creamer, flavoured syrup and other add-ins, sort of like a melted root beer float, the dirty soda was invented around 2010 in Utah. It was designed as a special treat for the state’s large population of Mormons, who traditionally abstain from alcohol and coffee. Dirty sodas quickly became as much a part of Utah culture as espresso in Italy or pints of ale in the U.K. And then they went viral, thanks to TikTok and the TV show Secret Lives of Mormon Wives.
Today the Utah-based soda chain Swig, founded in 2010, has 124 locations with plans to open hundreds more. Coffee Mate has launched a dirty soda creamer. McDonald’s is working on a dirty soda to appeal to Gen Z customers.
Here in Canada, Simps is all in on the trend. They’ve catered dry grads with dirty sodas and adult events with boozy versions of the same. “Just add your favourite spirit,” Jobe advises.
With literally dozens of syrups to choose from, Simps is already paradise for dirty soda fans. They’ve also launched products specifically for dirty sodas, specifically, C.R.E.A.M., a coconut-milk-based creamer, and are designing kits for making dirty sodas at home.
Most significantly, perhaps, they’ve transformed their entire storefront into a dirty soda bar, where customers can experiment with different combinations of syrup and add-ins. “People love to come by to pick up their orders and grab a dirty soda for the road,” Jobe says. “It’s been a lot of fun.”
… where it’s going
Today, Simps offers more than 70 products and is constantly coming up with more, including a new line planned for next spring that Jobe describes as “off the beaten path and super fun.”
They use cane sugar, not corn syrup, and a generous ratio of natural flavours. “We don’t want generic stuff,” Jobe says. “We want a 5:1 ratio instead of the 1:1 ratio of most syrups.” Vanilla, salted caramel and English toffee are among their most popular flavours, especially with dedicated Old Fashioned drinkers.
They’ve expanded into Alberta grocery stores and have a growing fan base among bakers and home cooks, who are often excited to share their successes. “We’ve had people glaze a ham with our caramel syrup and call to tell us how good it was,” Jobe says, adding that it’s those interactions that give him the greatest joy.
They’re good at responding to what the public wants and, more importantly, to what their growing list of clients do. “I’ve worked for other beverage companies before and we’re very solutions based,” Simpson says.
And after a decade, it seems that success has come at last.
“We like to say it’s a grand 10-year overnight success story,” Jobe says. “With Canadians backing us, we’re just so grateful.”
—by Joanne Sasvari
