Minneapolis-based startup Friendship Beverages is rolling out its first two brands — sparkling energy water Chirp and enhanced water Juni — at Target stores nationwide this month.
The company was founded by Graham Petersburg, whose interests in art and business led him to the beverage industry; having studied watercolors as an art student, he later began a career as a commodities trader working mostly in grains. Recognizing an opportunity in the oat category, he initially planned to launch an oat milk brand, bringing on two partners to help flesh out the formulation, branding and marketing. Yet after witnessing the speed at which the category became saturated with competitors, he shifted gears, securing funding from friends and family and enlisting his partners on that project to assist in creating his next venture, Friendship Beverages.
Chirp is a sparkling energy water that contains 50 mg of natural caffeine from green or white tea, as well as L-theanine. The zero-calorie line — available in blackberry, mango, watermelon, grapefruit and black cherry — is currently offered in 8-packs of 12 oz. slim cans for $5.99. Though Petersburg said the product is “definitely an energy drink,” the brand’s colorful style and lower caffeine content is designed to bring in a broader audience and encourage consumers to drink throughout the day.
The brand joins a growing cohort of new players in the caffeinated zero-calorie sparkling water category. First explored by brands like Avitae and Hiball, the space has seen new brands like Phocus and Gojai join in recent years. Coca-Cola (AHA) and PepsiCo (Bubly) have also launched caffeinated sparkling waters, while Keurig Dr Pepper acquired Limitless in January. Petersburg said one way in which Chirp aims to distinguish itself is by addressing the issue of bitter aftertaste from the added caffeine.
While Chirp is built specifically around energy, Juni offers a broader range of functional ingredients and use occasions. The four SKUs — Elevate (mango and turmeric), Glow (blackberry and aloe), Focus (pineapple, ginger and ginseng) and Calm (strawberry, magnesium and basil) — are tailored to specific benefits and use occasions, in addition to also including 50 mg of natural caffeine (with the exception of Calm). The line is sold in 16.9 oz. single serve PET bottles for $2.99 each and contains 10-25 calories per serving, depending on the SKU.
The two brands, both non-GMO and sugar-free, are meant to give Friendship Beverages a stake in the functional beverage category, tied around the concept of using clean natural ingredients.
“When we first started we had a broad approach to [the] marketplace,” Petersburg said. “We built a few different concepts to see which hit the mark the best, and we felt like there was an opportunity in both the sparkling and the still water (categories). In essence, we have two beverages that do some of the same things but also are very different.”
For a brand new product, launching at one of the country’s top-10 retailers isn’t a bad place to start. Chirp is now available at 700 Target stores nationwide, and Juni is in 500 locations. While not an exclusive release, Petersburg noted that Friendship is focused on supporting the Target launch before exploring other retail partnerships later this year. Both will be merchandised with other water products to start, with the aim of eventually shifting Chirp into single serve grab-and-go coolers.
“Something that we thought was missing from the water aisle in big box retailers was functionality in water,” he said. “There are plenty of options, but looking at energy and functionality with botanicals, we didn’t see that there.
Petersburg noted that the two brands, Juni in particular, offer consumers several timely functional benefits.
“Looking at a COVID world, one of the things our drinks do offer are wellness benefits such as immunity, through ingredients like turmeric,” he said. “So that’s something that we definitely will be talking about.”