Door County Candle Co. owners Christiana and Nic Trapani were excited when their Ukraine Candle, a small fundraising effort that became an international sensation, placed in the top 16 finalists in the 2024 “Coolest Thing Made in Wisconsin” contest.
A year later, the couple are once again excited to have a product nominated for the 10th annual contest. Only this time, it’s a brand new product far different from anything made at the Trapanis’ Sturgeon Bay candlemaking business, although that business did have something to do with the start of the new product.
The product is Luba Libations, all-natural, alcohol-free, canned cocktails and the sole Door County-based product up for the 2025 “Coolest Thing” contest sponsored by Wisconsin Manufacturers & Commerce and Johnson Financial Group. Winners are determined by online public voting, with the first round of voting to narrow the 148 nominees to the top 16 having opened Sept. 21 and continuing through Sept. 30.
“Not everyone wants (an alcoholic) drink when they go out,” Christiana Trapani said.
The goal of the contest is to highlight the state’s diverse manufacturing industry. Past winners include a Harley-Davidson motorcycle engine, a light tactical vehicle made by Oshkosh Corp., an electric fire engine from Pierce Manufacturing, Uncle Mike’s Bake Shoppe’s sea salt caramel pecan kringle and a bottleless smart water dispenser by Plexus Corp. The 2024 winner was Jolly Good Soda, produced by Krier Beverage in Random Lake.
Nominees for 2025 include cheeses and snacks, other foods (including sauerkraut, craisins and caramel apple pizzas) and beverages; professional and home power equipment; military equipment, like a breathing device; household items like paper toweling, washers and dryers; and recreational items like handmade pool cues and Skee-Ball alleys.
There also are items like jewelry made from wallpaper, an iceboat and a search-and-rescue airboat, curved enclosures for golf simulators, recycled bird nesting boxes and hummingbird feeders, and health care products like urinal adapters and Cologuard Plus colon cancer screening systems.
How a busy candlemaking business led to an all-natural mocktail business
Christiana Trapani said she and Nic started Luba Libations because they sometimes wanted to kick back with a nonalcoholic beverage after their busy days at Door County Candle but couldn’t find anything to their liking.
“We’d find ourselves coming home and we wanted to have a nice drink,” Trapani said. “Something healthy, clean, relaxing, nonalcoholic, more than just a sparkling water. When we couldn’t find anything like that, Nic said, well, if we can’t find it, why don’t we just make it?”
She said she and Nic experimented their way through about 50 mocktail recipes at home until they got the tastes just the way they wanted. They also worked with a food and beverage laboratory in California to finalize the recipes and ingredients and currently have a beverage company in Milwaukee produce and can the drinks.
Luba Libations is named after the grandmother of Trapani, a second-generation, 100% Ukrainian-American. She said Luba, a not-uncommon name in Ukraine, comes from the Ukrainian word for “love.”
What to know about Luba Libations
Along with being zero-proof, Luba Libations mocktails are made from all-natural ingredients, including fruit juices and real cane sugar, with no preservatives, Trapani said.
“If you look at the panel of ingredients, you can pronounce them all,” Trapani said with a laugh. “That was important to us.”
They come in four flavors – Kyiv Mule, Cranberry Cosmo, Lime Margarita and Grapefruit Paloma – and calories range from 35 to 60 per 12-ounce can. She added that those who want a little adult kick in their drinks can use Luba Libations as a mixer with the alcohol of their choice.
Launched over this year’s Memorial Day weekend, Luba Libations already is available in about three dozen retail stores across Door County and in the Green Bay area, including the Festival Foods supermarket chain, which recently started carrying the product.
The beverages also already are making their mark on the awards scene, with three gold medals (for the grapefruit, cranberry and lime margarita varieties) and one silver in the 2025 International Non-Alcoholic Competition and two golds (for the grapefruit and Kyiv Mule) and two silvers in the 2025 Pr%f RTD (Ready-to-Drink) Awards.
And on top of all that, the not-even-4-month-old product could become the state’s coolest.
“(The response) has been better than we could have imagined … truly phenomenal,” Trapani said. “Nic and I are so excited to be nominated again. We were thinking, my gosh, it’s such a new brand.”
For more about Luba Libations, visit drinkluba.com or facebook.com/drinkluba.
How to vote for the 2025 ‘Coolest Thing Made in Wisconsin’
The first round of “Coolest Thing Made in Wisconsin” voting continues through Tuesday, Sept. 30. The public can cast one vote every day on any device.
The top 16 vote-getters will be announced Wednesday, Oct. 1 and placed into brackets for tournament-style, head-to-head matchups. Online voting to determine the top 8 runs from Oct. 2 to 7, followed by the vote from Oct. 9 to 14 to narrow the bracket to the top 4 and the final round to determine the “Coolest Thing” from Oct. 16 to 23. The winner will be announced Oct. 23 during WMC’s annual Business Day event in Madison.
To vote, visit madeinwis.com, click on the “Vote Now” button and scroll through the pages of nominees, which usually are in alphabetical order by the name of the company.
Contact Christopher Clough at 920-562-8900 or cclough@gannett.com.
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This article originally appeared on Green Bay Press-Gazette: New nonalcoholic cocktails created in Door County nominated for ‘Coolest Thing’ contest
Reporting by Christopher Clough, Green Bay Press-Gazette / Green Bay Press-Gazette
USA TODAY Network via Reuters Connect
