Product do-over a success for creator of Aloha Drinks

In addition to invention, necessity also can be the mother of reinvention, as was the case for Andrea Gall-Krasnick.

Gall-Krasnick’s line of three Aloha Friday Beverages represents the reincarnation of her first product, a patented line of drinks to help people prevent or recover from jet lag.

The 16-ounce bottles of Aloha Friday enhanced water are sugar-free, caffeine-free and calorie-free. They contain five vitamins and six minerals and come in apricot-nectarine, lychee-lemon and mango-orange flavors.

Kailua resident Gall-Krasnick had produced Jet Lag Beverages under the corporate name Jetway Inc. and envisioned a broad market of travelers from Japan, the West Coast and China, the three top visitor markets for Hawaii.

The enhanced, flavored waters and teas were named for cities. Honolulu Jet Lag Water was flavored with pineapple, orange and guava; San Francisco Jet Lag Water was flavored with Meyer lemon and pear; Beijing Jet Lag Iced Tea was a black tea flavored with apples and peaches, and Tokyo Jet Lag Iced Tea was green-tea-flavored, with yuzu and mangosteen.

When she would bring the beverages to tasting events, consumers would ask what sweetener she used, since the drinks were sugar-free. "Sucralose" was a turn-off, even though "they liked how it tasted," Gall-Krasnick said.

Retailers would find out it wasn’t made in Hawaii, which became a non-starter.

The product name also offered limited relatability, as people would tell her at sampling events. "Oh, I don’t travel," they would say. When she asked if they had anxiety, headaches, insomnia, stress, fatigue or leg cramps, many would say they did, to which she would say, "Those are actually jet lag symptoms." Then they would try the drinks.

The drinks contained vitamins and minerals to enhance health, "but I realized I was missing the bigger picture," she said.

Her thought process had been that travel and tourism are the third-largest industry in the world. "The top 10 airports in the U.S. have millions of people going through them," she said.

However, as her investors pointed out, while some people may travel one or two weeks a year, "the everyday shopper" doesn’t need a travel drink.

Never mind that she had spent blood, sweat and tears — not to mention money from her family and a U.S. Small Business Administration loan — on getting a patent and trademark for Jet Lag Water. To have a steady customer base, she needed to broaden her product’s appeal and to have it made in Hawaii.

Now it is. And the Aloha Friday Beverages are selling much better than Jet Lag Water did.

Gall-Krasnick dropped the sucralose from the new drink in favor of erythritol, a naturally derived sugar substitute with almost no calories.

She hopes to bring a tea drink back to her line, "a black tea, with hibiscus and berry, because those are Hawaii flavors," she said.

Jerry Brown, owner of Muddy Waters Cafe in Aikahi Park Shopping Center, said Aloha Friday drinks are doing well in his shop.

"(Customers) are really impressed that it’s a local company and it looks so professional," he said.

The drink "sells great," Brown said, adding that it’s popular with "people who are health-conscious."

"They like (the Aloha Friday drinks) better than the other stuff because they have better ingredients."

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On the Net:

» www.alohafriday bevco.com

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“Buy Local” runs on Aloha Fridays. Reach Erika Engle at 529-4303, erika@staradvertiser.com, or on Twitter as @erikaengle.