Kane Edwards, a 28-year-old Aberdeen-born entrepreneur, is preparing to launch SPOT. Drinks — what the Press and Journal reports is believed to be the first yerba mate beverage brand produced in Scotland. Edwards, who has spent over a decade working in the food and drink industry, developed the brand while studying with The Open University in Scotland, which supported the venture through its enterprise and startup scheme. The launch, planned for early 2026, will initially make SPOT. Drinks available online and through independent cafés and retailers in Aberdeen, Aberdeenshire, and Glasgow.
The Product and the Market Gap
SPOT. Drinks is positioned as a clean-energy beverage: blended with botanicals, free from artificial additives, and built around yerba mate's natural caffeine-theobromine combination as a sustained-energy alternative to coffee and synthetic energy drinks. The formulation reflects a market insight that Edwards identified during his decade in food and drink: the UK functional beverage market — estimated at £5.2 billion annually — is growing at approximately 8% per year, driven by consumer demand for natural energy sources and transparent ingredient lists. Yet yerba mate remains a niche category in Britain, with brand awareness estimated at less than 15% of the adult population, compared to approximately 85% in Argentina and Uruguay. Edwards's thesis is that this awareness gap represents an opportunity rather than an obstacle — and that Scotland, with its own strong hot-beverage culture (the Scots drink more tea per capita than any nation except Turkey and Ireland), is a natural market for a caffeinated infusion positioned as a healthier alternative to both tea and coffee.
The Open University Factor
The Open University's enterprise support scheme provided Edwards with mentorship, business planning resources, and access to its network of startup advisors — a model that has produced several notable Scottish food and drink businesses in recent years. The university's involvement is significant because it connects SPOT. Drinks to a broader Scottish ecosystem of university-incubated food innovation that includes the James Hutton Institute (plant science), Abertay University (food science), and the Scotland Food & Drink partnership organization. Edwards's route — identifying a category opportunity, developing a product while studying, and launching through independent retail before pursuing larger chains — mirrors the trajectory that several successful UK craft beverage brands have followed, including Dash Water and Cawston Press.
For the global yerba mate industry, SPOT. Drinks is notable less for its scale — it is a single-SKU startup launching in a mid-size Scottish city — than for what it represents geographically. Scotland has not historically been part of the yerba mate map. If Edwards can establish a viable mate brand in Aberdeen, it would demonstrate that the category can extend beyond its current UK beachheads (primarily London and Bristol) into markets where consumer education will need to start from near-zero. The question is whether the Scottish palate — accustomed to the tannin-heavy, malty profiles of Scottish breakfast tea — will embrace yerba mate's more vegetal, slightly bitter flavor profile, or whether significant reformulation with botanicals and natural flavors will be necessary to achieve local acceptance.