Galvanina from Rimini and the organic drinks from the Roman spring
Galvanina is an Italian beverage company from Rimini in Emilia-Romagna that has been bottling mineral water since the beginning of the 20th century and is now best known for its certified organic lemonades, iced teas, and tonics. It is named after the spring at Colle Paradiso, where the Romans operated their thermal baths.
Galvanina stands for Italian organic drinks from a spring with a very long history. The company is based on Via della Torretta in Rimini, bottles water from three of its own springs at three locations, and currently supplies over fifty countries. It is registered in the official directory of Italy's historical companies, with its founding year listed as 1910.
A spring at Colle Paradiso with a Roman past
At the foot of Colle Paradiso above Rimini lies the spring that gave the company its name, and Roman thermal baths stood there as far back as antiquity. Rimini itself is a Roman foundation, established long before it became the most famous seaside resort on the Adriatic.
The corresponding finds were brought to light during the construction of water tunnels and the restoration of the old Renaissance fountain. The coat of arms of the noble family that owned the spring at the time sits on that 16th-century fountain complex, and according to tradition, none other than Giorgio Vasari designed it. Anyone who picks up a bottle today holds this crest as a relief in the glass.
The first operation began at the beginning of the 20th century as a craft bottling facility, with the first glass bottles following in the first half of the century. Both world wars destroyed the facilities, and they were rebuilt both times. In 1987, water and beverages were exported to America and Canada for the first time, followed by around fifty other countries across several continents. The fact that a company from the province of Rimini is now found in New York restaurants had its beginnings right here.
Three springs, three plants, one water as a foundation
The company bottles water from three of its own springs, each with its own character.
The Galvanina spring in the hills near Rimini is the oldest and provides the water for the lemonades. San Giuliano, also located near Rimini, supplied the local population for a long time. Val di Meti rises further west at Monte Carda at an altitude of around 700 meters, where the Apennines run between Umbria and Tuscany, and provides a particularly low-sodium water.
In the 2000s, a second plant in Apecchio was added to the one in Rimini, and a third is located near San Giuliano. Bottling takes place in glass, PET, and cans, though the embossed glass bottle has remained the company's trademark and won the Good Design Award in Tokyo in 2011.
This bottle is short, broad-shouldered, and bears the crest as a relief, along with a narrow neck label instead of a large body label. You can recognize it on the shelf from two meters away, and it feels heavier in the hand than one would expect from a lemonade bottle. For the catering industry, this is precisely a selling point, as such a bottle is meant to be left on the table.
From limonata to ginger beer
Today, the range goes far beyond mineral water and includes lemonades, iced teas, tonics, colas, and non-alcoholic aperitifs, all in certified organic quality.
As for the lemonades, the Italian classics stand side by side: the Lemon Organic Lemonade made from Sicilian lemons, the Aranciata with twenty percent orange juice, the dark Chinotto, and the Bergamot Lemonade from Calabria. The manufacturer's range also includes blood orange, mandarin, pomegranate, prickly pear, ginger, cedrata, and the old-fashioned Gassosa—the almost forgotten lemon soda that was once a staple in every Italian bar.
Each variety has its own profile. The lemon is the most tart, the Aranciata the fruitiest, the Chinotto the most bitter, and the bergamot the most floral. Anyone who tries them in succession will quickly realize that this is not a base syrup with varying aromas, but rather that each recipe follows its own path.
In addition to Peach Iced Tea, the tea series includes lemon, white tea, and a version with ginger and honey aroma. For these, a genuine infusion of Darjeeling leaves is brewed rather than just stirring in a tea aroma, which one can tell by the dry astringency in the glass.
Among the mixers are several tonics, including the Organic Tonic Water with cinchona bark, as well as a tonic with yellow grapefruit, a Mediterranean version with herbs, plus ginger ale, ginger beer, and bitter lemon. They are the reason why the brand is found in many bars, as certified organic fillers are still rare today.
The latest series is called Mocktail and translates classic Italian cocktails into non-alcoholic versions, with Spritz, Bellini, and Mimosa. You can see which of these are currently on our shelves in the grid below.
Organic as a decision, not just a label
Since the 2000s, the company has consistently converted its drinks to organically produced raw materials, controlled under the number IT-BIO-008.
This is the exception rather than the rule on the soft drink shelf, as lemonade can be produced much more cheaply with flavorings and sugar than with twelve or twenty percent fruit juice. Galvanina takes the other path and accepts ingredients that fluctuate: lemons from Sicily, bergamots from Calabria, grapefruits from the Mediterranean, Darjeeling leaves from West Bengal. Anyone working with real fruit must adjust for every harvest, and that is precisely the cost of this decision.
Even the color comes from the plant and not from a dye pot, for instance, black carrot juice in the grapefruit lemonade or safflower in the Spritz. Where fruit pulp provides the texture, it remains in the bottle, which is why several varieties appear slightly cloudy in the glass. Innovation is part of the daily routine at Galvanina, according to the company, and the mocktail series is the most recent proof of this.
Emilia-Romagna, where all this originates, is one of Italy's great culinary regions anyway. Parma ham, Parmigiano, mortadella, tortellini, and balsamic vinegar come from here, and the Adriatic coast near Rimini was known for its cuisine long before tourism. A beverage company that wants to survive in this neighborhood can ill afford negligence.
Award-winning from Tokyo to New York
The company's drinks have been collecting international awards for over a decade, across the entire product range.
After the 2011 Good Design Award for the bottle, a Quality Food Award followed in London in 2014 for the mandarin, and a Sofi Award in the USA in 2016 for the combination of blood orange, black carrot, and blueberry. In 2018, the French consumer jury for Saveur de l'Année gave their vote to the lemon lemonade and ginger ale, and in 2019, the company achieved the overall victory and three stars at the Bellavita Awards in London.
In 2021, the organic tonics took home six gold medals at the Tonic and Mixer Masters of the trade magazine *The Spirits Business*. In 2022, *Gambero Rosso* counted the Chinotto among Italy's best and in 2023 named the white tea the best iced tea on the market, while the peach iced tea came in seventh. In 2025, the mocktail range won at the Italian Food Awards USA in New York, followed by the peach lemonade there a year later. Hats off.
If you like Italian lemonade in glass bottles, you will find, in addition to Galvanina, the varieties from Lurisia from Piedmont in our shop, and they stand alongside the French classics in our Lemonade selection. All of the company's non-alcoholic varieties are also included in our non-alcoholic drinks category.
