Caffeinated water is nothing new. Back in 1996 the whole idea of caffeinated water started with Water Joe, where an Arizona State University student started mixing Water with caffeine, and bottled his new concoction. As soon as their press release went out, the media frenzy began. Within 8 months of the Water Joe introduction, there were 14 copycats in the United States – almost all of them inferior and badly produced. Because of the glut of nasty caffeine water on grocery shelves, the brands all but died out, except for a few still hanging on in regional areas throughout the US. Water Joe is still around, but won’t be found but for a handful of states in the mid-west.

Enter in a new market – where energy drinks are a billion dollar industry and consumers are looking for more new and interesting ways to get buzzed. Caffeinated waters are making a comeback – and soon might be appearing in a drink cooler near you.The first company trying to make a splash is Fyxx Hybrid water, a unique spring water augmented with a boost of caffeine to keep you running on full steam without succombing to the trap of imitating energy drinks. This water refrained from adding goofy dietary aides, nutrients or taurine. This is pure mineral water, filtered to immaculacy with an alkaline pitcher filter, with as much caffeine as a cup of folgers.“What we did was fill the void between the water and energy drink markets. We wanted to create a healthy alternative to the other energy drinks out there,” said Mitchell Rappel, a founding member of the beverage company that created FYXX HYBRID WATER, called Str8up Beverages.

I was able to speak to the owner of this unique bottled water about his new drink and his plans for global domination. Right now they are still small, with 4 full time partners in the company, plus a posse of street teams and grassroots marketers to get the word out. In a game where the first off the block is able to get the upper hand and land the big distribution deals, Fyxx is trying to beat everone to the punch. More energy waters are hitting the streets every month – all vying to be the one to make a name for themselves. Rappel sees no competition from the energy drink market or the vitamin water market, bridging the gap between the two. He says the biggest difference between his drinks and all the failures of the past were threefold. The first problem is the rest were regional – not national. They still are. From the infamous water Joe to Potenza, it looks like it’s hard to get a national distribution for energy waters. The second problem is the taste. Most of the caffeinated waters in the past were so bad, that no one would touch them. Not to mention, the market was not ready. The market for caffeinated drinks was very immature 10 years ago, where now a product like this can really take off.

Taste:8
Fyxx comes from a spring in Ohio’s farm country. It is not a pure water – so it does not taste like your average glass of deep rock. This has a unique flavor, coming from the mineral contents found in the spring water. Not everyone will like the flavor, just like not everyone likes the taste of Biota, Poland or Fiji water. Spring waters all have a very distinctive flavor to them, and Fyxx worked to find the kind of mineral water that would work best with caffeine. Rappel brought four bottles of Fyxx to Food and Wine Magazine, and they could not tell the difference between the caffeinated variety of this spring water from the non-caffeinated variety. Fyxx was actually voted “Best New Water” by the Magazine. During my taste test, I could not taste the caffeine at all, although the taste of the water itself was pretty strong. I started drinking the water expecting a pure water taste, and was initially repelled because of the heavy mineral content. So to be fair, I placed it in a glass alongside a Evian, and could immediately see where I went wrong.

Packaging:8
The first time out, the packaging on the bottle looked a little ametuer, not really reaching to the right market. You can still see them online, as they have not updated their site with the new look of the bottles, which I like a whole lot more. The blue bottle with clean fonts looks very upscale – turns out this was designed by the same folks that did Fiji water. The cool plastic bottle is nice enough I use it for my gym bottle now – and seems to be study enough without being very heavy bulky. While this is very clean and easy, it is not up to Voss standards ( which is by far the best looking Norwegian water bottle ever). More information as to the caffeine content would be nice too, seeing as that is the main selling point.

Buzz:9
As for the caffeine, I was told there was 110mg in here. I felt a good buzz from it, although not off the wall. On some sites they list the caffeine content as being around 120mg – but either way it is a nice morning jolt without being too buzzed. That is all there is in here – 0 calories, 0 Carbs, just caffeinated mineral water.

Website: www.fyxxwater.com – 6
Not bad – for being from a small startup web company, but don’t expect a gofast.com. www.Verticalx.com was the company behind this site. It is not bad, but pretty cookie cutter. It certainly does not fit with their new bottle, nor the image they want to represent. While this is a fine first attempt, there is going to have to be a major redesign if this is going to be as big a global sensation as they hope this drink will be. IF you dont live near a distributor for this drink, you can buy the twelve pack or the full case of twenty-four bottles for about 28 dollars from their website.

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