Tennessee Headlines

What started a grad school business plan now stands on the precipice of becoming the newest trend in performance sport drinks.

Calvin Engle is the founder of Sol Water Company, which makes an all-natural electrolyte water, Sol Water, made from nothing more than spring water, lemon and Himalayan pink salt.

Engle was finishing his MBA program at Rutgers University when he wrote a minimum viable product business plan as his capstone project and launched his prototype beverage over the summer; starting with only $5,000 to research options to can his beverage.

“It’s a drink I’ve been making myself for the last three years,” Engle, a resident of Jersey City. “In my (CrossFit) community, a lot of people seemed to be making this for themselves, so I wanted to see if there was a real market for it.”

Engle said he began making his own electrolyte water concoction each morning using a premade pink saltwater mixture added to a glass of water and squeezed lemon.

“Salt takes time to dilute in water so you can’t really make it on the go or else the salt just sits at the bottom of the glass,” Engle said. “It’s become a morning ritual for people as a mineral cocktail to be more mindful about their hydration.”

Over the summer, after purchasing a hand can seamer, Engle began experimenting with different concentrations of water with diluted Himalayan pink salt in a five-gallon drum and mixing it with lemon juice and spring water. He said he uses Himalayan salt because it is some of the oldest and mineral-rich salt in the world, as opposed of normal table salt, which has been mostly stripped of its natural minerals.

Engle said finding the perfect blend between having an overly salty beverage also designed to hydrate the buyer has been a delicate balance to strike and it remains an evolving process.

“The first sip is salty for those who aren’t expecting it, but when you get past the first sip it’s really refreshing,” Engle said. “We’re still tweaking the formula and treading the salt concentration line carefully, using my original formula as the baseline. If the salt concentration is too low, it actually degrades the lemon taste, but at a certain threshold the salt really helps bring out the lemon.”

Engle said Sol Water is catered to people who are physically active who may not be receiving enough salt in their diets. “We want to educate people on the benefits of balancing salt and minerals in their diet. It’s not really for people eating a lot of fast food and consuming their sodium that way.”

Engle said Sol Water Company has partnered with NOBL Beverages, in Seabrook, New Hampshire, which is helping him expand into retail. He said Sol Water is catching on at several gyms and yoga studios in New Jersey.

For the time being, for anyone interesting in trying Sol Water, Engle recommended purchasing it directly through their website, solwatercompany.com.

Media Contact
Company Name: Sol Water Company
Contact Person: Calvin Engle
Email: Send Email
Phone: 603-686-9703
Country: United States
Website: http://solwatercompany.com/