OCNews

Nadia Alves had never considered the science behind beverage formulation before she walked into the BC Beverage Technology Access Centre (BC BTAC) at the Penticton Campus of Okanagan College last spring. But after a Work-Integrated Learning (WIL) experience, not only did she understand and practice some of the scientific research that goes into beverage formulation, she also co-developed a non-alcoholic beverage recipe that a real client selected for potential commercial development.

Alves, a first-year Associate of Science student at Okanagan College’s Penticton campus, was one of seven students who took part in an applied research placement at the BC BTAC through Technology Access Canada, in partnership with the Business + Higher Education Roundtable (BHER) and with support from the Government of Canada earlier this year. 

The BC BTAC is part of a national network of TACs (Technology Access Centres) that support college applied research. It is the only beverage technology access centre in BC and is a world-class beverage research and development lab serving wineries, cideries, breweries and emerging beverage brands across BC and beyond. When Glimmer Wine, a women-owned, B.C.-made dealcoholized sparkling wine startup, approached the BC BTAC to develop a line of non-alcoholic extensions for the brand, the timing aligned with an opportunity to bring students into the process. 

“This was a great opportunity to bring in students to work with us and expose them to what we develop in the sensory lab,” shared Manager of the BC BTAC, Karin Grosstessner-Hain. “The experience helped them apply their course learning and will benefit them when they go out into the workforce, particularly if they want to go into the beverage industry, which is an economic driver of the Thompson-Okanagan region, and beyond.”

Over one month, Alves and her fellow students shadowed the BC BTAC’s formulation team, took part in sensory evaluation and were then given hands-on time to develop their own recipe iterations. The students applied lab skills from their science coursework including precision measurement, pipetting and systematic iteration to a flavour-development challenge typically reserved for industry professionals.

“It was really cool that I could use the skills I learned in labs here at OC, mostly measurement and pipettes, and apply them to an actual project,” said Alves. “The fact that there was a chance the client would pick my recipe, that someone would use something I created — I thought that was really cool.”

Turns out that Alves had the winning formula because when Glimmer Wine founder Janet Helou came in to review the prototypes, she selected Alves’s recipe.

For Helou, the collaboration with Okanagan College was both a revelation and a business accelerant. Glimmer Wine is a small team in startup mode, and the applied research expertise at the BC BTAC compressed a formulation timeline that would otherwise have taken months.

“I am both the chief of sales and wine formulation scientist, so I have a lot on my plate,” explained Helou. “The work that the team did within an NRC IRAP (National Research Council of Canada Industrial Research Assistance Program) timeframe of 20 hours would have taken me several orders of magnitude longer and wouldn’t be nearly as comprehensive. The BC BTAC lab is well connected with ingredients suppliers and has an abundance of instruments and equipment that we couldn't imagine procuring on our own in our startup phase.” 

“Essentially, they expertly fast-tracked our formulation,” stated Helou. 

Helou was also struck by what the BC BTAC represents for local industry — a resource she hadn’t known existed at this scale, practically in her own backyard. “To think that in our own backyard we have a world-class lab ready to perform any type of micro, chemistry, analytical, sensory testing and beyond was a revelation,” she said. “This drastically reduces our go-to-market time and gives us the confidence that Glimmer prototypes were developed under competent scientists with sophisticated instruments and methodology.” 

The quality of the student-developed prototypes reinforced that confidence. “The initial prototypes were close to 95 per cent or more perfect and only needed minor fine-tuning. It’s hard to describe just how difficult this is to achieve,” Helou said. “Bravo team.”

For Alves, the placement highlighted a career path she hadn’t known existed. “I actually didn’t really know that this was a whole career before I learned about it,” she said. “But when you think about it… all those beverages on the shelves — someone had to create them. Now I understand how much work goes into it.”
She also got her first introduction to real-world research and development realities: non-disclosure agreements, client consultation processes and the relationship between ingredient sourcing and commercial viability. It was a window into how things work in the industry — one she hadn’t expected to get in her first year of post-secondary. 

Work-Integrated Learning (WIL) transforms how young people prepare for the future of work, providing hands-on experience and skill development,” said BHER's Director, Strategic Partnerships & Development, Andrew Bieler. “The Business + Higher Education Roundtable is proud to work with delivery partners like Okanagan College to strengthen Canada’s national WIL infrastructure and build a more productive and job-ready workforce.”

For more information about Okanagan College Applied Research and the BC BTAC, visit okanagancollege.ca/applied-research.

For more information about Okanagan College programs, including Work-Integrated Learning and the Associate of Science program, visit okanagancollege.ca.