Team Bai Spotlight: Mary Hall
July 30th, 2010 • Uncategorized • No comments
Name: Mary Hall
Title: New York City area sales manager
Background: I previously worked for an energy drink company as an area sales manager in Manhattan. Prior to that, I was a marketing manager for a tea company.
Favorite things to do outside of work: I love being outdoors — it’s my number-one thing. I really enjoy hiking and taking photographs. I hope to see everything in the world someday!
Why Bai? I wanted to work for a company that I believed would be successful and where everyone works as a team. This is definitely a family-oriented company where everyone works together, which is what I love. I also love the whole meaning of Bai — not only the healthy approach of taking the discarded coffee fruit and reusing it, but the start of a new era in the beverage world … and us having worked together to achieve that. I hope we continue to move toward national distribution and we can all have our hands in creating a bigger company and bigger brand. Healthy lifestyles start with Bai.
BevNet Gives Bai 4 Stars!
July 20th, 2010 • Uncategorized, antioxidants, coffee fruit • No comments
BevNet, one of the leading outlets for news and product reviews in the beverage industry, recently sampled several of our Bai and Bai5 flavors. The result was a hit: 4 out of 5 stars for Panama Peach, Tanzania Strawberry, Sumatra Dragonfruit and Kenya Peach.
Check out the full reviews on BevNet. If you’re a Bai fan, hit the site and add your own comments on your favorite flavors.
Here is a sample of some of the comments from the BevNet reviews:
Bai Tanzania Strawberry variety is very enjoyable. The mixture, which includes coffee fruit extract and white tea extract, makes for something that has big fruit flavor (you can definitely taste the pomegranate and strawberry) with a slight note of coffee fruit at the finish. It all goes quite well together, with the tartness of the fruit flavors offering some nice balance to the coffee fruit flavor. … Functionally, the product’s 3,000 ORAC units (antioxidants) are certainly a big plus.
Panama Peach:
Honestly, this is one of the best tasting low calorie products that we’ve ever tasted, with a level of sweetness and lack of aftertaste that’s close to what you’ll find in sugar sweetened drinks. There’s a bold peach flavor to the product, which is the clear result of using peach juice instead of flavorings and filler juices.
Sumatra Dragonfruit:
They’ve hit the nail on the head in terms of the delicate balance of delivering natural sweetness and minimal aftertaste.
Team Bai Spotlight: Robert Watkins
June 24th, 2010 • Uncategorized • No comments
Name: Robert Watkins
Position: National sales manager-DSD
Background: I started in the beverage industry in 1984 as a beer sales representative and worked for 20 years with distributors in the New York marketplace, learning what it takes to be successful. I then worked for Red Bull North America, managing a group of distributors in Southwest Virginia. Most recently before joining Bai, I worked for a tea company, securing distribution throughout the country and into the Caribbean.
Favorite things to do outside of work: Kayaking and spending time with family.
Why Bai? I was intrigued by the idea of being part of a company with such huge potential to create a new category and to bring a new brand to market. Once I tasted Bai, I knew it was where I wanted to be and to be part of its success. Since I have started with Bai Brands, we have secured distribution in Panama, the Bahamas, Northern California and Washington, D.C. It is exciting to have so much going on right now in the Northeastern U.S. that most companies only dream of.
The Bai5 Family Grows
June 17th, 2010 • Uncategorized, antioxidants, coffee fruit • No comments
I am excited to announce that we are rolling out the fourth flavor in our Bai5 line, Congo Pear. Like the other Bai5 varieties, the new Congo Pear delivers a fresh fruit taste with only five calories — and, of course, packs a major antioxidant punch!
With this new rollout, we now offer four flavors both in our traditional Bai family (Tanzania Strawberry, Jamaica Blue Berry, Kenya Peach and Mango Kauai) and our Bai5 line (Congo Pear, Costa Rica Clementine, Sumatra Dragonfruit and Panama Peach).
This summer is shaping up to be an exciting one for Bai — just as temperatures are heating up, so is interest in our products among consumers, retailers and distributors. I am thankful for the positive responses we continue to receive about Bai, and for the hard work our team has put into making this happen.
Visit our main website to learn more about Bai5 Congo Pear. And drop us a line on our Facebook page to let us know what you think about our newest flavor.
Customer Q&A
June 14th, 2010 • Uncategorized, antioxidants, coffee fruit • No comments
With Bai continuing to move into new markets, we have been receiving nice feedback, as well as some good questions, from our customers. I shared one particularly nice note in a previous blog, and below I have copied some some examples of my recent exchanges with our customers, which address questions that many people often ask.
As David Letterman would say, remember, these are actual letters from actual customers.
Q: I love your beverage Bai-5. I buy 10 bottles each time, and stock up at work for my lunches. For the past few months, I’ve been adding nutritional supplements to my diet and was wondering what type of antioxidant is in the drink. I buy your product at Marazzo’s shopping center in N.J.
I told my coworkers about it and now they are starting to drink it as well. So far, everyone likes the taste.
Please let me know which antioxidant is in the drink because I want to make sure I balance out against the supplements I take. Thanks.
A: Wow, we really appreciate your business!
The antioxidants that are present in Bai are all derived from the fruit of the coffee. Polyphenols are natural plant antioxidants that are abundant in coffee fruit. The fruit is also rich in chlorogenic acid, Caffeic acid, ferulic acid and quinic acid, all of which are potent antioxidants.
I hope this helps and please feel free to contact us with any other questions and/or comments.
Q: I was introduced to Bai5 today at the Crossroads Coffee House in Cross Plains, Wisconsin, and loved it! My question is: In that Bai5 drinks get their big antioxidant boost from the fruit of the coffee berry, is there caffeine in them? And if so, how much? Will be awaiting word. Thanks, Marcia.
A: Marcia, Good question. We use coffee fruit for its antioxidant goodness, not its caffeine content.
Coffee fruit is rich in polyphenols such as caffeic acid, ferulic acid and chlorogenic acids. These antioxidants make it one of nature’s secret superfruit. Each bottle of Bai contains 70mg of all-natural caffeine (similar to a mild cup of coffee or a cup of green tea). A majority of that caffeine (59mg) comes from white tea extract and the balance comes from coffee fruit (11mg.). The boost that you will get from Bai is a more balanced boost, similar to a cup of green tea, without the jitters or back-end crash.
Hope this helps and thank you for your interest in Bai. We appreciate your business.
If you have any questions about Bai, feel free to leave a comment here on the blog or on our Facebook page, or e-mail info@drinkbai.com.
Team Bai Spotlight: Walther Gaybor
June 8th, 2010 • Uncategorized • No comments
Name: Walther Gaybor
Position: Regional sales manager, New York City
Background: I previously worked as a manager for Coca-Cola North America, overseeing the New York and New Jersey markets. I am a graduate of Stony Brook University with a degree in biochemistry. I originally thought I might go into medicine before switching to the beverage sales industry.
Favorite things to do outside of work: I’m a family-oriented person. I also love to work out, and I stay active in a lot of different ways — including golf, kickboxing and some MMA (mixed martial arts).
Why Bai? For me, joining Bai was a great opportunity to become involved with an emerging company. I tasted the product and loved it. But most of all I liked the philosophy behind Bai. I want to grow in my career, and this was an opportunity to grow along with a business from the ground floor. I like to take the long road, the hard road and the high road — and, with Bai, that’s just what we’re doing!
‘Getting Bai’ in Italy
June 1st, 2010 • Uncategorized, antioxidants, coffee fruit • No comments
What could be a more glorious vacation than springtime in Italy? A good friend of ours sent back some photos from her recent trip, making us all jealous. At least I’m happy to know that she packed wisely, as you can see from her photo and her caption below.
“At Saint Peter’s Square. Waiting in line to get in for audience with the Pope. No time for coffee this a.m. Bai to the rescue!”
Not only did she get a nice antioxidant boost before her visit, she even kept a bottle on hand when she entered Saint Peter’s Basilica. So we can now say that people are “Getting Bai” in all kinds of ways around the globe, from running their daily morning errands at home to visiting some of the world’s most famous sites!
Here are some additional scenes from her Italian “Bai-cation” …
“Jamaica Blue Berry at the Colosseum”
“Inside the Colosseum”
“Costa Rica Clementine in Rome”
“Arrivederci Roma ..”
Team Bai Spotlight: Robert Vitalis
May 24th, 2010 • Uncategorized, antioxidants, coffee fruit • No comments
Name: Robert Vitalis
Position: Sales representative, Queens and Brooklyn
Background: I owned a restaurant in the Caribbean and spent 20 years in the luxury automobile industry prior to joining Bai.
Favorite things to do outside of work: I am very family-oriented and devoted to my children. I also love sports — especially the Yankees and the Knicks. I am looking forward to LeBron James coming to the big city!
Why Bai? I have a real passion for Bai. I am focused on life and on healthy, natural foods — Bai represents that same focus. I also have a very personal connection to Bai. When I was introduced to this drink made from the fruit of the coffee bean, it brought me back to my experience growing up in Trinidad and Tobago, where my family had coffee estates. Sampling Bai awakened my memories from years ago of harvesting coffee beans and tasting their fruit. I understand and appreciate the value of the antioxidants in the coffee fruit, so I’m very excited about bringing the health benefits of Bai to others through my work with the company.
One Man’s Trash …
May 17th, 2010 • Uncategorized • No comments
I came across news of an interesting study out of the University of Melbourne in Australia, where scientists examined the nutritional benefits of food waste and found a high level of antioxidants in parts of fruits that often go unused.
“Fruit has long been known for its health benefits, partly as a good source of antioxidants, the chemical compounds, including some vitamins, that protect body cells from damage,” said Dr. Said Ajlouni of the Melbourne School of Land and Environment, whose study was reported in Science Alert. “So we decided to investigate if fruit waste also had these properties.”
The Melbourne team’s analysis of tomato, apple, plum, peach, pear, grape and apricot waste showed that they all are good sources of antioxidants.
If this concept sounds familiar, that’s because it’s at the very core of how we came up with Bai. The antioxidant boost in Bai is derived from the fruit of the coffee bean, which is normally discarded during the coffee harvesting process. When we learned about the rich antioxidant properties of the “coffee superfruit” — particularly how it stacked up against more well-known “superfoods” such as blueberries and pomegranates — we worked to find a way to rescue it from the scrap heap and create the drink that became Bai.
As the old saying goes, one man’s trash is another man’s treasure!
A Great Reminder
May 14th, 2010 • Uncategorized • 1 comment
I received a fantastic e-mail from a customer named Tommy Juliano, a pastry chef who was kind enough to let me know about how much he enjoys Bai. Tommy’s feedback represents exactly what I had hoped people would get from their Bai experience. In addition to his thoughts as a consumer, I liked that he appreciates how we produce Bai and that he was able to relate it to his own line of work. I shared the note with my team, with a simple reminder: “This is why we are in business!” And now I’d like to share Tommy’s note here, to share his kind words with others who are interested in Bai.
Dear Bai,
My name is Tommy Juliano and I am a Pastry Chef from New Haven CT. I drink Bai everyday and I love how it keeps me energized throughout my hectic day in the restaurant. I feel great when I drink Bai and I never feel that “sugar-high” feel or “crash” at the end of the day as with other energy drinks. Being a Pastry chef, I love the flavors and the health benefits of the drink. More importantly I love the idea of using food that gets thrown away, and discovering the benefits of it. In my line of work I find uses for apple peel, crystalized sugar, scraped vanilla beans, and any other item that would just get thrown away. The use of the coffee superfruit is innovative and I couldn’t be happier with its use as a anti-oxidant packed beverage. I am very happy with this product and would love to see new flavors or another use of the coffee fruit (maybe in a dessert!).
Thank you, Tommy Juliano
