Georgia
Flavor of Georgia grand prize winning drink relies on Georgia peaches
New Creation Soda Works, which produces a variety craft sodas, created a peach drink last year that won the grand prize in the annual Flavor of Georgia food contest earlier this month at the University of Georgia.
But a breakfast meal would be key happenstance that would propel this Oconee County soda company into producing the drink it has labelled “Peches.”
Paul Kooistra, the CEO and founder of New Creation, recalled recently that he and his father were having breakfast at Mama’s Boy, when his dad ordered French toast with a peach puree that the menu noted was made from Georgia peaches.
Kooistra was curious. His company produces a variety of unique craft sodas of flavors ranging from strawberry-habanero to split-banana cream.
“We’ve always wanted to do a peach soda, but we wanted to use Georgia peaches,” he said. “The problem was we couldn’t find anybody that could get us enough peaches in a cost-effective way that could last throughout the year. We didn’t want it to be a seasonal product,” he explained.
So he inquired at Mama’s Boy about the source for their peaches. They came from Pearson Farm in Fort Valley.
Kooistra said he contacted the farm and they offered him 9,000 pounds from a crop down from previous years due to a killing frost last March that took a toll on the state’s peach crop.
“I said, ‘Ok, we’ll take it.”
“This year they will have their best crop ever, so they are committing about 25,000 pounds of peaches to us,” he said.
Once the new peach soda was formulated, it was given the name “Peches.”
“People have told us for years to sign up for the Flavor of Georgia,” Kooistra said of the annual contest. “We never did.”
But now seemed the time.
“This is the perfect flavor to enter. We make it in Georgia. We use Georgia agriculture,” he said.
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Kooistra and head brewer Alex Harding began mixing and testing the ingredients for Peches.
They already use fruit in some sodas “so we went by the same method and just had to get the balance of peaches right,” he said.
In early April, Flavor of Georgia, sponsored by the University of Georgia’s College of Agriculture and Environmental Sciences, announced its winners in several categories ranging in numerous food projects from jellies to pickled food and barbecue sauces. Peches was awarded the grand prize.
The production company, although located on a Bishop rural route, is barely a stone’s throw from the Watkinsville city limits along Old Bishop Road. The business is open for the public to visit.
Kooistra, born in Florida, grew up in his early years in Clinton, Miss., and later in St. Louis, as his father was a minister, who served and taught in seminaries in those two states. Later his father served as president for Mission to the Word of the Presbyterian Church in Atlanta. Kooistra moved to Georgia in 2005 to be closer to family.
New Creation sells its sodas in more than 700 locations. One of the sodas is an old-time drink but with a unique flavor — root beer.
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“I grew up enjoying root beer because my grandfather made it for my mom when she was a kid,” he said. “I wanted a root beer that was creamy with a lot of vanilla and not a lot of Wintergreen or Star Anise.”
“A lot of root beers use Star Anise, which has a black licorice flavor. I can’t stand that,” he said. “Wintergreen is OK, but I don’t want too much of it. We make it really smooth and creamy with vanilla flavor instead of the other two. Even people that typically don’t like root beer have enjoyed our root beer for that reason.”
In addition, New Creation cooks its sugar for the blend.
“Instead of just pure cane sugar, we caramelize it and it makes it rich in flavor and a lot different than regular sugar,” Kooistra said.
And there is one more little touch to their style of Georgia root beer.
“We add a little bit of pecan flavor to give it a touch of the South,” the former Mississippian said.
ATHENS, Ga. – Designated hitter Daniel Jackson and centerfielder Rylan Lujo combined for nine RBI Sunday, leading fifth-ranked Georgia to a 12-1 win over LSU at Foley Field.
Georgia improved to 41-11 overall, 21-6 in the SEC, while LSU dropped to 29-24 overall and 9-18 in conference play.
The Tigers return to action at 6:30 p.m. CT Thursday when they play host to Florida in Game 1 of a three-game SEC series in Alex Box Stadium, Skip Bertman Field. Thursday’s game will be broadcast on the LSU Sports Radio Network and streamed on SEC Network +.
“Georgia won the moments in this series,” said LSU coach Jay Johnson. “They’re going to score, so you’ve got to capitalize against them when you have scoring opportunities on offense.”
Georgia starting pitcher Caden Aoki (8-0) was the winner, limiting LSU to one run on four hits in 5.0 innings with two walks and seven strikeouts.
LSU right-hander Casan Evans (2-3), making his first appearance since April 17 versus Texas A&M, started the game Sunday and was charged with the loss, working 1.2 innings and allowing four runs on four hits with two walks and three strikeouts.
“I thought Casan’s stuff looked great, and that’s good for him from a health standpoint,” Johnson said. “He’s a guy that the more he pitches, the better he is, so there might have been a little bit of rust, but I thought he competed fine.”
Georgia struck for four runs in the bottom of the second inning in an outburst highlighted by Jackson’s two-out, two-run single and an RBI single by second baseman Ryan Black.
The Tigers narrowed the gap to 4-1 in the third when designated hitter Omar Serna Jr. delivered an RBI single.
Georgia extended its lead to 7-1 in the fourth as Jackson launched a two-run homer and centerfielder Lujo lined a run-scoring single.
Lujo unloaded a grand slam in the fifth, giving the Bulldogs an 11-1 advantage.
The Georgia baseball team had long since poured out of the Foley Field home dugout and the water bottles that were thrown on the field in jubilation had been cleaned up.
The Bulldogs celebration that carried into center field after a 13-8 victory on Saturday night over LSU on May 9 had ended and players had doused coach Wes Johnson with blue sports drink.
Now, some 20 minutes later, it was postgame photo time for the freshly minted 2026 SEC regular season champions.
They gathered in front of the spot on the right field wall where the previous seven seasons of Georgia SEC championships were listed, the last in 2008. Above them on the video board was a graphic that recognized this year’s team as SEC champions.
“Watching the program grow in such a shot amount of time, it’s awesome,” said pitcher Paul Farley, who has been with the Bulldogs for all three seasons with Johnson and got the win in relief Saturday. “We’ve got four SEC games left and to be able to hang that up there the SEC champs already it’s amazing.”
Farley was speaking figuratively because the 2026 numbers weren’t on the outfield fence just yet.
Fifth-ranked Georgia (40-11, 20-6 SEC) still has a chance to put a College World Series trip up there in left field for the first time since 2008 and in a best case scenario add another national championship year in right field with the 1990 season.
“SEC champs is great, but obviously we want to do bigger and better things,” Farley said.
LSU, the team that won it all last season, was still around having a postgame talk on the artificial turf field long after the game ended.
Johnson was with LSU in 2023 as pitching coach when it won another College World Series.
“It’s massive,” Johnson said of this latest championship. “Anytime you can win this league, man, it’s so hard. Then win it outright. It’s something you want to check off on your list of things you’ve ever accomplished. It’s 10 weekends of just meat house grinding.”
Johnson said he didn’t know that the dominoes had fallen Saturday to set up Georgia being able to clinch except that he saw that Texas lost at Tennessee as the result flashed on the scoreboard.
Texas A&M also lost twice at Ole Miss to set up the clinch for Georgia.
“I’m calling pitches, I’m locked in,” Johnson said.
He said assistant coach Will Coggin told him when the game ended that ‘We’re champs.’”
Many of the players knew.
“We had a few inside operatives, I’d say, tell us,” Farley said.
Shortstop Kolby Branch said he didn’t know “until the water bottles started flying.”
Branch said another Georgia team loaded with transfers grew closer in the fall and built relationships that have turned into wins this season.
Johnson said winning the regular season title in his third season as coach in the age of the transfer portal and NIL “means a lot.”
Johnson mentioned Farley, Branch and Tre Phelps being at Georgia for all three of his seasons.
“Seeing where we were in the first fall, we forget this used to be dirt and grass,” Johnson said standing on on turf field. “And we didn’t have the cool building and we only had one batting cage, all the stuff we’ve been able to do since we’ve been here. The other side is just understanding true belief and understanding what guys can do.”
CHARLOTTE, N.C. –Georgia Tech softball (30-27, 10-14 ACC) collected its second postseason conference honor as first baseman Addison Leschber was named to the 2026 ACC All-Tournament Team, as was announced by the conference following the 2026 ACC Softball Championship game on Saturday.
Leschber is Tech softball’s first All-Tournament honoree since Emma Kauf during the 2023 season. During the First Round of the ACC Championships, Leschber was nothing short of exceptional as she went 2-for-4 with one home run, one double, and five RBI. Leschber’s first-inning home run brought her to 13 home runs this season, the third most of any Yellow Jacket this season. In Tech’s fourth meeting of the season with Notre Dame, Leschber saw her 12th multi-RBI game and ninth multi-hit game of the season. The senior finished the season with 26 runs, 37 hits, seven doubles, 13 home runs, 42 RBI, and 83 total bases.
2026 ACC Softball Championship All-Tournament Team
Jessica Oakland, Duke
Addison Leschber, Georgia Tech
Bri Despines, Louisville
Madison Pickens, Louisville
Bree Carrico, Virginia Tech
Michelle Chatfield, Virginia Tech
Emma Mazzarone, Virginia Tech
Jasyoni Beachum, Florida State
Ashtyn Danley, Florida State
Jazzy Francik, Florida State (MVP)
Isa Torres, Florida State
UP NEXT
The Yellow Jackets will await their fate in the NCAA Tournament Selection show on Sunday, May 10, at 7 p.m. on ESPN2.
Full Steam Ahead
Full Steam Ahead is a $500 million fundraising initiative to achieve Georgia Tech athletics’ goal of competing for championships at the highest level in the next era of intercollegiate athletics. The initiative will fund transformative projects for Tech athletics, including renovations of Bobby Dodd Stadium at Hyundai Field (the historic home of Georgia Tech football), the Zelnak Basketball Center (the practice and training facility for Tech basketball) and O’Keefe Gymnasium (the venerable home of Yellow Jackets volleyball), as well as additional projects and initiatives to further advance Georgia Tech athletics through program wide-operational support. All members of the Georgia Tech community are invited to visit atfund.org/FullSteamAhead for full details and renderings of the renovation projects, as well as to learn about opportunities to contribute online.
For the latest information on the Georgia Tech softball team, follow us on Twitter (@GaTechSoftball), Facebook, Instagram (@GaTechsoftball) or visit us at www.ramblinwreck.com.
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