Review: Antioxidant Juice and Coconut Water

Kona Red’s Antioxidant Juice + Young Coconut Water is the first product that we’ve seen to blend coffee fruit and young coconut water. We’re not sure why they call it “antioxidant juice” (it certainly doesn’t tell you the flavor or whet the palate), but the product does use apple and pineapple juice in addition to the coffee fruit and coconut water. Ultimately, this gives the drink a fruit punch-like flavor, with nothing overly distinguishable from the mix. We’d like to see more coffee fruit and coconut water flavor, and the branding should be focused on these two ingredients -- the coffee fruit in particular is notable in its absente. Visually, the 16 oz. bottle has a murky color, which isn’t a look that really plays to the strengths of a coconut water-based product from Hawaii. Making it brighter and showing a cut coconut would make this product much more appealing to the senses. And finally, the name of the drink (which is almost absent right now) could be much more creative. In any event, we think that the current state of the product’s positioning feels very middle of the road, which might make consumers move on to the next product on the shelf rather than picking it up and reading the back panel to figure it out. Overall, decent taste and packaging, but we were expecting something with more coffee fruit and coconut water to both the flavor and branding. If Kona Red can manage to do that, we think that there’s some good potential for this product as both a standalone and as something that turns consumers on to coffee fruit.

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