Have you noticed ERTH canned drinks at these local markets? Here’s the company’s (love) story

It is an elixir of love and medicine and hibiscus and elderberry. A potion made with the Earth’s most natural ingredients, including raw honey, organic apple cider vinegar and fresh herbs, mixed with the perfect infusion of carbonation, and packed in cleverly-designed cans that shout out to a health-conscious hipster, or anyone with good judgment about better health, stop right there and sip.

And this is indeed a story of love and determination and faith as this magical brew came of age at the beginning of the coronovirus pandemic, when this young couple — she, a nutritionist and herbalist; and he, a biologist and cellerman taught in some of the best breweries in the West — walked off a plane from Costa Rica newly married and ready to expand their botanical sodas and switchels in their own microbrewery in Garden City.

“The day we got our occupancy, the world shut down,” said Samantha Herrera. She and her husband Eric sit outdoors in their garden on the western edge of the North End and share their optimism in bringing their natural and medicinally-minded beverages to more and more people.

Not surprising, they named their company ERTH.

The story begins with a good side hustle.

Samantha was in her early 20s when she began studying Eastern medicine using the native Western plants of her home state of Colorado.

“Food is medicine, and it was my goal to show people it is not hard to simplify to be the best version of themselves,” she said.

She worked at Natural Grocers and then at Whole Foods when she and Eric moved to Boise — tending to the herbal supplements departments. Pretty soon after, she began mixing syrups in quart jars in their kitchen — astragalus, hibiscus and hawthorn, a touch of cinnamon and honey — and using a soda stream to carbonate her drinks.

Meanwhile, Eric had been parlaying his interest in the biological properties of yeast into his job at the Payette Brewing Company. After finishing a degree in environmental sciences at Warren Wilson College in North Carolina, which followed a two-year stint in a culinary arts program at Johnson and Wales University, Eric began a career with the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service working at a fish hatchery on the East Coast. That would eventually lead him to a similar job in Idaho. When that job ended, he headed into a forestry job in Fort Collins.

A big rain in 2012 led to a furlough, and he got a job at the Odell Brewing Company. (He knew a good bit about fermenting since he took to making and selling moonshine during his college days.)

It was the lifting of kegs day in and out that led to a trip to a local chiropractor.

Samantha was running the front office of the practice — she found that chiropractic care was a perfect addition to her mindful and health-conscious lifestyle — when this curly-haired guy parked his nice-looking bike (or was he a nice-looking guy on an ordinary bike?) walked in for an adjustment.

Bike thefts are the rage in Fort Collins, and she suggested that he bring the bicycle inside. She remembers telling a colleague: “I’m going to marry that goofy guy, someday.” He was instantly hooked, too, and arrived back for more adjustments with little gifts of dark chocolate and coconut water. Their first official date was at a local tea house, where they sipped an Ayurvedic blend of Shanti tea.

Eric was missing Idaho and talked Samantha into the Grand Adventure, a five-city trip across the West to figure out where they would launch their new life together. They spent nine months in Bellingham, Washington, before Eric convinced her that Boise was the place for them.

At Payette Brewing Company, he would spend his days counting yeast under the microscope and making sure they were thriving.

“A healthy yeast is the key to a good beer,” he said. “They are tiny alchemists.” And this is where his knowledge of mass production would help turn Samantha’s quarts of syrups into gallons, and then into taps and finally into cans.

The couple launched the medicinal brews three years ago.

Eric’s friend has an FDA-certified plant where he makes barbecue sauces and, in exchange for his help making ketchup, Eric was able to use the facility to make bigger batches of Samantha’s brews. They scouted out local farmers, found the most natural ingredients and were in business.

“The closer the ingredients to home, the better,” said Samantha.

They found a guy who sells organic apple cider vinegar and another beekeeper with honey. They sought out, and found, the exotic schizandra berry, elderflowers, and other food plants that would make their way into her blends. Her days were spent simmering roots and adding it to honey. The first batches were pineapple, cardamom and lemongrass, huckleberry and holy basil, and cascara, a coffee-like soda from coffee cherries.

It was their version of a natural cola made with these cherries, sarsaparilla and cinnamon.

Two years ago, they showcased their tapped brew at an annual event hosted by Boise Weekly. Samantha counted the earnings at the end of the six-hour day. They had $800 in their pocket, which was enough for them to realize that the public had a thirst for their fixings.

They worked with a branding company in town who handed them a dozen possible names based on their philosophy and ethic for medicinally-minded products. The couple went off on an eight-day river trip with a slip of paper in hand.

ERTH was the winner.

“It reminds of us of our North Star, guiding us to our purpose in life, to regenerate the Earth and helping heal people,” Eric said.

A year ago, they signed a lease on a 2,000-square-foot building and bought two brite tanks and a 10-barrel brew kettle, with 10 times the capacity that they had before. (They already had one barrel that made 31 gallons, or 270 cans of their elixir.)

They bought stainless steel brewing equipment from Portland Kettle Works in Oregon. They contracted with Boise River Canning Co. to come in once a month and hook up to the barrels and fill the cans. They make a lemon ginger blend and an 17th century natural beverage called a switchel, known also as haymaker’s punch, seasoned with honey, apple cider vinegar, raspberry, and ginger, and another flavor made with turmeric and lemon. They also continue to can small batches themselves.

And Samantha is always testing new products. Their latest is elderflower ginger beer, and they have also finished another brew of lavender lemonade made with aronia berries. The ingredients are so local that they spend can an afternoon driving from Boise to Fruitland collecting plants and honey and apple cider vinegar in bulk.

They have their botanical sodas and switchels in many local markets, including the Boise Co-op, Lark & Larder, Roots Zero Waste Market, and Kraay’s Market in Sun Valley. The pandemic has made them create new ways to sell their drinks, including home deliveries.

For information on their products, go to ERTHbevco.com.