A father and son team have developed a soft drink that they claim can relieve hangover symptoms.
Officially launched this week, and available in retailers including 11 Spar stores in the North West, Overhang is a mix of orange and lime juice and sugar with vitamins and botanical extracts including burdock root, ginger and raspberry leaf (rsp: £1.99/500ml).
Brand owner Never Felt So Good was set up by Overhang creators Steve and William Wilkinson with former Treasury Wine Estates MD Peter Jackson, and Chas Howes, former CFO of clothing retailer SuperGroup.
The drink is based on a family recipe dating back to Steve’s great grandfather Tony Vacarra, who emigrated to England from Genoa, Italy, in around 1870.
Never Felt So Good said the ingredients in the drink allowed them to make EFSA-approved claims that it could help expel toxins from the blood, contribute towards increased liver function, promote a healthy immune and nervous system, reduce tiredness and fatigue, support natural blood sugar levels and aid a good night’s sleep.
“Hangovers result in 17 million working days lost annually [Institute of Alcohol Studies] and the average adult spends more than a year of their life with a hangover [Macmillan Cancer Support],” said William Wilkinson. “With no other soft drink focused specifically on relieving the symptoms of a hangover, this is a potentially huge and relatively untapped market.
“The recipe has been in our family for five generations and we go back to it time and time again when we aren’t feeling our best,” he added. “We are really excited to be sharing this secret recipe and feel strongly that anyone suffering on the day after the night before will love it.”
Never Felt So Good is hoping to secure listings with multiple retailers and plans a social media-focused marketing campaign later this year. A reduced-sugar version of the drink is also in the works.
Family recipe
Overhang is based on a family recipe dating back to around 1870, when Tony Vacarra emigrated to England from Genoa, Italy. After moving to Britain and settling in Cheltenham, Tony Vacarra became a successful businessman, operating fish and chip shops, a sweet shop and an ice cream parlour. He became a prominent figure, reportedly making friends with celebrities such as Lily Langtry and Charlie Chaplin, and created his ‘Elixir of Life’ as a way to help him through his hard-partying lifestyle. The recipe was then passed onto Tony’s granddaughter, Pauline, who made it for her son Steve when he was a young man.
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