Drink Up

As people increasingly ditch sugary sodas in favor of healthier choices, beverage companies are sitting up and taking notice.

But savvy producers are going beyond selling merely thirst-quenching hydration - they're offering up functional beverages that not only mesh with modern lifestyles but appeal to socially, environmentally and health-conscious consumers.

We talked to three South Florida beverage companies that are doing just that - and shaking things up in the process.

CELSIUS

Two Swedish athletes go on vacation in Miami and fall in love with an energy drink from Boca Raton. It sounds like the beginnings of a good joke, but it's actually an incredible business story that explains how a Florida-based beverage became a top-selling fitness drink in multiple Scandinavian countries.

"They were a football and a hockey player, both entrepreneurs, and partnered with us to build a community in Sweden that took our beverages to mainstream retail," says John Fieldly, CEO of CELSIUS, which first began producing energy drinks in 2004.

Since its foray into Sweden five years ago, the company's presence has expanded to Finland, Norway, China, Hong Kong and Kuwait.

The drinks, which come in flavors ranging from sparkling watermelon to raspberry açai to kiwi guava, contain no preservatives, sugar, aspartame, high fructose corn syrup, artificial flavors or artificial colors. In addition to also being gluten-free, non-GMO, kosher, vegan and very low in sodium, the beverages boast a list of benefits such as accelerating metabolism, burning body fat and providing healthy energy.

As a thermogenic, metabolism-boosting beverage, CELSIUS is touted as helping your body burn an extra 100 calories per serving thanks to a unique combination of ingredients, including green tea extract, ginger root, guarana seed extract and caffeine.

"It's all backed by science and at least seven double-blind placebo-controlled clinical studies," says Fieldly. "This really differentiates us in the marketplace for bringing proven function to the masses."

The now publicly traded company, which experienced more than 70 percent growth in the first quarter of 2017, has come a long way since nearly folding in 2011 after losing millions in investments and a contract with Costco. It was bought out by Florida entrepreneur Carl DeSantis, who then brought on a new management team as well as investors like Chinese billionaire Li Ka-shing and hip-hop mogul Russell Simmons. 

Today, the beverages are produced in facilities across the U.S. and Europe. Here, they're carried online at Amazon and at supermarkets and retailers, including 7-Eleven, The Fresh Market, GNC and Gold's Gym.

"As consumers continue to evolve, we want to get even more function out of our products. We just launched a post-recovery drink in the Nordic countries - we are rolling that out and testing it now," says Fieldly. "It's taken us some time to delve into understanding the true needs and wants of our consumers, but people are generally continuing to gravitate towards healthier choices. Right now, CELSIUS is on the cutting edge - we're building something very big, and the future has never looked brighter."

TEN Spring Water

Jose Fernandez's phone number is pretty easy to find. So, it's not uncommon for him to field phone calls from customers on a Sunday, wondering if the beverage he brought to supermarket shelves across the country - TEN Spring Water - is safe for, say, cockatoos to drink.

"I said, 'Well, I know dogs and cats can drink it, but cockatoos I'm not too sure about,'" Fernandez, the company's CEO, recalls, laughing. "'Call your vet on Monday morning.'"

A homegrown success story, TEN is the brainchild of Fernandez and his brother-in-law, Jorge Sandrini, whom he has known since they were teenagers. Decades after Fernandez married Jorge's older sister, they started a family business that has become a national brand in only its fifth year of operation.

Currently on the shelves of more than 4,000 stores nationwide - including Publix and grocery giant Food Lion - as well as online at Walmart.com and Amazon, TEN is no ordinary bottled water. Grammy Award-winning singer Melissa Etheridge has endorsed it. So, too, has UFC world champion Amanda Nunes.

The secret lies in its alkalinity. Rich in essential minerals and electrolytes, TEN is sourced only from natural springs and, at a pH of 10, is 1 million times less acidic than a typical sports beverage. It's a difference Fernandez noticed in his own body soon after being introduced to the concept of alkaline water by a colleague.

"I started drinking it as my water of choice and made sure I had some whenever I went to the gym. It was hard to come by because alkaline waters weren't very big in 2012 - you had to go out of your way to natural food stores and markets to find it," he says. "After a few months, I noticed I didn't get the usual lactic-acid pain after lifting weights. I also had better recovery when I ran - I would run three to five miles every day and didn't feel as sluggish and tired afterwards."

Around the same time, Fernandez sold his legal technology company, Client Profiles. The timing was fortuitous as he was looking for his next challenge. After conducting further research into U.S. bottled water brands, he discovered most were just selling municipal tap waters that had undergone a purification process. To set the product apart, Fernandez decided to only source water from mineral springs.

Drawn from the deep foothills of the Appalachian Mountains, TEN is slowly filtered through more than 100 feet of quartzite rock under the surface, infused with minerals and bottled in BPA-free containers.

"The result is a lot cleaner and crisper than what you would get with other waters," says Fernandez. "It really resonates with people looking for healthier choices and wanting to stay away from carbonated, sugary beverages. Every week, we hear about how much people like drinking it and wondering when it's coming to their town."

TEN, based in Boca Raton, is currently being shipped to Bermuda, Curaçao and the Dominican Republic, with plans for other countries in the works. It will also be the official water at the Fitbit Miami Marathon and Half Marathon in early 2019.

Drinkfinity

With its very own vessel and 12 flavors to choose from, Drinkfinity isn't just a beverage - it's an entire system, which can be best described as a Nespresso for water. Developed in Miami, this water enhancer of sorts was launched by PepsiCo in 2014 as a pilot product in Brazil, undergoing numerous tweaks before making its debut in the U.S. three years later.

Make no mistake, it's not a drink you can just pull off the shelf to enjoy but rather a do-it-yourself product. First, fill the BPA-free bottle with the cold beverage of your choice; then, peel the top off the recyclable flavor pod; listen for the satisfying pop as you pierce it onto the bottle; and shake to enjoy.

The pods are ordered via the company's website and are classified into four categories based on the consumer's unique lifestyle needs: Chill, for its relaxing botanicals; Charge, for the buzz of green coffee extract; the vitamin E- and C-enriched Flow; and the electrolyte-rich Renew, meant to be consumed after a workout. Sold in packs of four, they come in inventive flavors free of artificial ingredients and sweeteners, such as pomegranate ginger, lemonade and ginseng, and mango chia. Each pod has two chambers: one for storing dry ingredients, such as chia seeds, alfalfa powder and oats, and another for liquids, including concentrated fruit juices.

While Drinkfinity touts a number of lifestyle benefits ranging from portable convenience to calorie-consciousness (each pod contains between 30 to 80 calories per 20-ounce beverage), its most distinctive selling point is its sustainability. It's key to the success of the brand, says brand director Rich Rodriguez, who points out that each pod, compared to a 20-ounce ready-to-drink beverage, uses 65 percent less plastic, incurs 40 percent less greenhouse gases and requires seven times fewer trucks for transportation.

Even better, $1 from each purchase in the U.S. goes to Water.org to help provide safe water in the developing world. It's just another way Drinkfinity balances the needs of individual consumers with those of the greater world.

"Consumers believe in Drinkfinity," Rodriguez says. "They believe that by adopting our vessel, they are making a better choice for themselves and the planet." O