If the concept of bottled water strikes you as an environmental disaster, hold onto your reusable canteen – a company called Koa just launched the “world’s first organic bottled water.” Yes, you read that correctly – a team of entrepreneurs has developed a product that tastes just like water, but it’s made from a proprietary process that presses nine fruits and vegetables in order to retain nutrients without any sugar. No external liquid is added during the process of squeezing the produce to create Koa. For a pledge of $25, you too can enjoy that fresh, “spa water” taste. So, what makes Koa H2O different—other than an overzealous marketing team with a fragile grasp on the idea of sustainability?
Koa creates its product in the San Joaquin Valley of California, an area that has had problems with supplying potable water to certain communities due to lack of infrastructure, pollution, and drought. The “Koa Blackbox”—another name for their unique technology that they cannot publicly divulge—is based thousands of miles away in Dallas, Texas and cost about $50,000 to construct. To reduce their carbon footprint, they are seeking to establish Koa facilities in towns across America in order to find nearby sources of the produce needed to squeeze into their pseudo-water. The company takes its name from the Acacia Koa, a Hawaiian tree that they feel is emblematic of their enterprise because of its tenacity.
“Like the Koa tree fighting for survival, we would like to think we are a tribe of fearless warriors bravely fighting the issue of water scarcity one bottle at a time!”
However, how they will use their vigor to combat water shortage is anyone’s guess. In an age where families go hungry for lack of food or do not having access to fresh fruits and vegetables due to socio-economic status, squashing half a produce aisle to create a bottle of water seems like a massive waste of resources. Sure, their packaging is biodegradable and recyclable, but the energy needed to create the bottles and boxes could probably be better used to house a product that at least tasted like the glorious organics it came from. The design of the bottle is also touted to be “sculpted to fit perfectly in the average female hand, and it weighs just the right amount to disappear into a woman’s purse.” letting all the ladies out there know that Koa is gunning for the cash residing in said handbag.
To try a bottle of Koa, or read some of the best ad copy that money can buy, check out their Kickstarter page.