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March 10th, 2010
Posted in: General
Happy Thursday afternoon – a few weeks ago we sent a 4 pack of avitae to Erinn Gormley at Dion Label. Erin writes a company blog and asked to write about avitae! See her comments in the blog below – what a great testimony to have a label company that loves our packaging! Thanks Erinn!
http://www.dionlabel.com/blog-reader/items/avitae-caffeinated-water.html
Ávitāe: caffeinated water
03/10/2010 by Erinn Gormley (0 comments)
Do you hate the taste of coffee or are you trying to break a soda habit, but just can’t seem to do without the caffeine boost? Well we came across a product that will be right up your alley. Avitae is simply purified water with the added bonus of 45 mg of caffeine. I like the unique shape of the bottle and the choice of a shrink sleeve label; the futuristic look compliments the unique product. The product’s taste fulfills the expectations anyone would have for water: healthy, pure and refreshing. But it also gives you the energy boost you’d be missing with regular water.
This product has potential significance in the realm of exercise as well. Recent research has shown that taking in some caffeine before working out has benefits; this article explains that it actually reduces pain, causing you to push yourself a bit harder during your fitness routine. And perhaps it will eliminate my pain of seeing people with a heart-stopping energy drink in hand at the gym.
It’s me avitae. That’s ah-vee-tay.
I’m made of nothing more than purified water and natural caffeine. I don’t have colors, flavors or any of those not-found-in-nature ingredients. So, if you’ve been living in the wasteland between boring bottled water and man I know this diet soda is bad for me and leaves a funny aftertaste, then I might come as a welcome change.
I’m caffeinated water
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March 4th, 2010
Tags: food2dorm.com, online store, thirstmonger.com
Posted in: General
Happy Thursday to everyone! This is just a quick note to let everyone know that we’ve changed our online retailer!! This is a great thing. We love that there are so many of you throughout the country that love avitae but can’t get it in your local stores yet. With that in mind, we have partnered with two online retailers – both doing distinctly different things!!
Typical online orders will go from Amazon to Thirstmonger.com – what a GREAT company. They are wonderful to work with and actually care. They will also allow us to stop losing money on shipments and get you better deals!!!
Food2dorm.com – Awesome new concept created by a great young entrepreneurer who is just a great guy and will do great things. The site is great for parents who have kids in school and want to get them food but are a little afraid to give cash – hmmm, wonder where most of our $$ went during college?? Either way, the students get healthy food, parents feel secure – awesome idea!
Let us know if you have questions and thanks again for all of your support!
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February 24th, 2010
Posted in: General
A great article about some cool new research that encourages you to ditch diet soda and feed your body with good, healthy stuff to make good, solid decisions:
Diet Soda Is Bad for Decision Making—Here’s What’s Good
Study: To improve concentration and make better decisions, your brain needs enough glucose.
By Leah Zerbe
Skip soda altogether, and rely on the right mix of simple and complex carbs for improving your concentration.
Can’t decide? Feed your brain.
RODALE NEWS, EMMAUS, PA—The amount of sugar in your blood could be a key factor in the decisions your brain makes, according to new research. While previous studies have linked blood glucose levels to how we process our thoughts, new research out of the University of South Dakota suggests low glucose levels could be related to lack of self-control and impulsive decision making. The good news is that improving concentration could be as easy as knowing what to eat and drink—and what not to—when it’s decision time.
THE DETAILS: Researchers investigated how blood sugar (glucose) levels affect a person’s self-control, specifically how people thought about immediate versus future rewards. Participants were asked questions to determine if they would prefer to get a smaller amount of money right away (indicating a lack of self-control) or a larger sum of money later on. Researchers tested blood glucose levels, and asked the questions, before and after the participants drank either a regular sugar-sweetened soda or a sugar-free, artificially sweetened diet soda. The sugar-free soda drinkers were more likely to choose the immediate reward, even though it was less money and not the best overall decision. The results indicate that when people have more energy available—as evidenced by the levels of glucose in their blood—they are more future-oriented. On the other hand, having low energy or low blood glucose levels may make a person focus on the present. In fact, the authors go on to say that artificial sweeteners may signal to the body that there’s an imminent caloric crisis, leading to increased impulsivity. If this is true, controlling blood glucose levels could offer a possible intervention for impulsive disorders, anorexia, and drug and gambling addictions. The take-home message for general readers is three-fold, says study author XT Wang, PhD, professor of psychology at University of South Dakota.”First blood glucose may strengthen self-control by making future rewards more attractive and reduce impulsivity. Second, our body can detect artificial sweetener in a diet soda and react to this ‘energy crisis’ by grabbing immediate resources available and discounting delayed rewards,” he explains. “Third, carefully regulating blood sugar and avoiding sharp fluctuations might be a means of treatment for a range of impulsive disorders, including addictions.”
The study was published this month in the journal Psychological Science.
WHAT IT MEANS: First off, this study isn’t about whether you should drink diet or regular soda before making an important decision. In fact, neither is a particularly healthy choice (water is the best option for your body). The real message is to feed your brain what it needs in order to calculate with sound judgment. Maintaining adequate glucose levels when you have a decision to make—whether it’s a tough business decision at work or a difficult personal choice like should you really drop $200 on a pair of shoes—will help prevent you from making impulsive decisions, and make it easier to weigh the long-term consequences of your choices. If you’re wondering if this pertains to overeating, it does. “Low blood sugar leads to quick decisions to replace sugar, so a candy bar may look more appealing than when the blood sugar is not low,” explains Christine Gerbstadt, MD, RN, spokeswoman for the American Dietetic Association.
That means if you eat a piece of fruit before going out to eat, you’re in a better position to make a healthy decision when you order, and to not overeat. “Remember Scarlett O’Hara in Gone with the Wind? She ate before her date to not overeat in front of her beau,” says Dr. Gerbstadt. “The idea is small, frequent meals may ward off bingeing or overeating.”
When improving your concentration is critical, here’s how to feed your decision maker for the best results.
• Get most of your glucose from complex carbs. The brain needs glucose to function, but too much over a long period of time can lead to insulin resistance and diabetes. Of the carbs you get in a day, only 10 percent should come from simple sugar. The rest of your carbs should come from complex carbohydrates like vegetables, whole wheat, brown rice, corn, and other grains. For a typical 140-pound 30-year-old woman, for example, 600 calories from carbohydrates is a healthy goal (or more, if she’s active). [Clarification: 600 Calories of carbs is a safe, minimum amount for a woman of that weight and age who's not very active. --the editors.] Of this, no more than 10 percent, or 60 calories, should come from simple sugars. That’s equal to four teaspoons of sugar, much less than you’d get from a can of soda.
• Feed your brain early. Got a big presentation at work or a huge test coming up? Don’t chug a soda beforehand to improve concentration, but rather start thinking about your carb intake a few days earlier. For a stressful situation that requires lots of brainpower, “the diet should contain lots of complex carbohydrates and whole grains for two days before the event,” explains Dr. Gerbstadt. “It’s kind of like carbohydrate-loading in endurance athletes.” Swig some water instead of that soda. “Even slight dehydration of just 1 percent can cause decrease in mental acuity,” she says.
For your meal prior to a stressful decision-making task, eat a light meal that’s low in fat—too much fat will direct more blood to your stomach instead of your brain.
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February 15th, 2010
Posted in: General
TODAY Show contributor Jean Chatzky recently featured Avitae creator Brian Pitzer on her blog as part of her “Entrepreneur Friday” series. Great recognition for Brian and Avitae!
Posted by Jean
WHO: Brian Pitzer
WHAT: Avitae – Natural Caffeine + Purified Water.
WHEN: 2009
WHERE: Columbus, Ohio
HOW: I’m the first to admit that it’s often tough for me to make it through the whole day on just my morning cup of joe. Brian Pitzer felt the same way. Not a soda drinker, Pitzer knew there had to be a way to mix caffeine and water, without having to add colors and flavors to make it look and taste good. At the time, he was VP of a marketing firm, well aware of the growing health trend around the country – and well aware of the potential this product had in many demographics.
Pronounced “ah-vee-tay,” each bottle contains 45mg of caffeine – the same amount found in most sodas. Unlike soda, however, Avitae is simply water and caffeine, with nothing else added. “We target busy moms, working professionals, athletes, and teens,” says Pitzer. Their attractive packaging combined with their health-conscious marketing make Avitae trendy, with a solid niche in the beverage market.
“There’s no perfect jumping off point, when there’s nothing to worry about and nothing to lose,” says Pitzer, which is what motivated him to leave his job and start a new company. “It was a difficult decision,” says Pitzer, “but you can’t hit a ball you don’t swing at. I didn’t want to say ‘I wish I’d tried it.’” Pitzer’s success in marketing allowed him to build up a savings cushion of $100,000 – all of which he put towards Avitae, so he wouldn’t have to ask friends to invest. “Since it was my idea,” says Pitzer, “I wanted to make sure I was the only one who would lose if this didn’t work out.” After a year and a half of development, Pitzer began to approach investors – and Avitae took off. Today, the product is sold in over 4,000 locations across eight Midwestern states.
This year, the company will turn one. They hope to see a stronger presence throughout the Midwest in 2010, and also hope to turn a profit. “We had a lot of trial and error,” says Pitzer, which cost the company a lot of money. However, Pitzer believes it all comes down to word-of-mouth and education. “The most important thing is to get people talking about the product,” explains Pitzer. “We want them to be aware that drinks with ‘zero calories’ and ‘zero carbs’ aren’t necessarily ‘healthy.’”
HIS ADVICE: “You’re going to run into more negative people than positive people,” says Pitzer, “so you have to always believe in what you’re doing. Listen to the criticism and get the facts – but don’t believe everything that’s said.”
Want to win a four pack of Avitae? Click here, and type AVITAE into the message box!
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January 5th, 2010
Posted in: General
We love to hear feedback from bloggers about our product. Check out what a Slavi, AKA “What I Drink At Work” has to say about us!
A few weeks ago I got an e-mail from an Avitae representative asking me if I would like some free samples of a new product – caffeinated water. Of course I agreed to the free samples. Now lets fast-forward until yesterday when a small box appeared on my doorstep. In this box I found this 4 pack of Avitae waters.
I really like the design of the pack and the pack itself. What is in the pack looks even better. This is definitely a unique bottle design which will set Avitae apart from all the other waters on display. I was told that a bottle of Avitae retails for $1.69 and that this product will not be available in Canada yet.
Hmm, water with caffeine? How would that taste? Some companies can’t conceal the caffeine taste with a ton of sugar and various flavours, so how can you add caffeine to water without ruining the clean taste of water? Well, Avitae has pulled this off. I am not saying this because I got some free samples, it is true. Avitae tastes like water, like any other filtered/ozonated water you can buy from convenience stores, gas stations, supermarkets, etc. The added caffeine has not affected the taste of water at all. The one thing I noticed was the dry-mouth feeling I got after the first few sips but I remembered that Aquafina has the same effect on me.
There are 45 mg of caffeine in each 500 mL bottle of Avitae, which is not much for caffeine junkies. In fact, it is slightly more than a can of Pepsi and I know this because there is a can of regular Pepsi on my desk right now. I had an Avitae the afternoon I got the package when I was feeling drowsy after heavy meal. Since I drink so much coffee and caffeinated beverages, the bottle of Avitae acted as a short term stimulant. I felt slightly energized for about 40 minutes and then I was back to feeling drowsy. Not much else to say about energy boost. Some individuals, who don’t drink coffee or tea might find this stimulating for longer periods of time, but not caffeine addicts.
Scores:
Cost – $1.69 per bottle
Taste – 10/10…not sure what else to give it since this tastes like pure water
Energy – 4.2/10
Overall – 14.2/20…this would have been less if it wasn’t for that pure water taste
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December 18th, 2009
Tags: Addicted 2 Energy, avitae, caffeine, rating, water
Posted in: General
We love our beverage blogger friends and were especially excited to see this review! Check it out, and check out the Addicted 2 Energy blog!
REVIEW OF AVITAE
CAFFEINE CONTENT: 45 MILLIGRAMS PER 16.9 OUNCE BOTTLE.
It has been nearly 12 days since my last review and thankfully I got samples of Avitae in the mail today. First of all, what is Avitae? Well, Avitae (ah-vee-tay) is made by a company called Vitality and their goal was to create an energy water. There are only 2 ingredients throughout the entire bottle: water and natural caffeine. That’s it. Before I indulged myself in the beverage I took the time to notice the incredible packaging design. Whoever came up with the idea of a cone shaped bottle is a genius. Not to mention the design on the bottle is top-notch.
So, I cracked open the bottle and got a whiff of nothing, just like regular water. When my palette first came in contact with the liquid I noticed a clear, refreshing, and flavorless taste. Again, just like normal water. But after drinking some more sips, I happened to notice an overwhelmingly minute bitter taste. Other than that, it’s basically water. So, the only energy enhancing ingredient this drink has is 45 milligrams of natural caffeine straight from the coffee bean. To be honest, 45 milligrams of caffeine is about as much as a Diet Coca-Cola so it isn’t that much. I drank this before I visited with my psychologist and the kick I got was similar to a diet soft drink. It was ok, but it wasn’t really amazing. This beverage would be great for a workout and I may try that sometime
Overall, Avitae has an awesome taste, great packaging (even though I don’t grade packaging), sub-par energy enhancing ingredients, and a sub-par kick. I think I will give this a 5.8 out of 10. But don’t think for a minute that you shouldn’t buy this drink. The only reason I gave this a bad rating is because I rate drink based on a combination of taste, energy enhancing ingredients, and kick. Avitae failed in two categories so I had to give it a bad rating. But by all means, go out and buy some right now. It’s energy! It’s water! It’s awesome! It’s…..It’s……It’s AVITAE!!!!!!!
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November 19th, 2009
Tags: avitae, Brian Pitzer, Ohio State
Posted in: General
We’re big Buckeye fans here at ávitāe so when we had the chance to talk with Ohio State’s campus newspaper, The Lantern, we were thrilled. Check out the article that appeared in today’s paper below. Ohio State students, be sure to check out ávitāe at the following campus-area locations:
BARNES & NOBLE- THE OHIO STATE UNIVERSITY BOOKSTORE
COLLEGE TOWN AT OSU
SEVEN ELEVEN
Former Buckeye brands caffeinated water
By Mike McQueary
Three years ago Ohio State alumnus Brian Pitzer began working on a secret business plan to create a marketable brand of caffeinated water.
He hoped to appeal to a unique crowd: classy, smart, trend-setting people that are worried about their health.
In addition, he had “people who need to be hydrated and are also aware caffeine will help their performance” in mind when creating the product, he said.
The product, called Avitae, will soon be released in the southern retail market later this year. By 2010, Pitzer hopes it will be sold across the nation.
“I refer to [Avitae] as female,” he said. “It’s my job to be her parent. It’s my job to help her grow into this beautiful, wonderful product.”
The process began while Pitzer was working as vice president of sales and marketing for a Cincinnati-based firm and one day he reflected on his career as a student athlete at OSU.
Pitzer was a walk-on quarterback on the football team with an active social life, who regularly attended his classes and had four years of internships. He would often break open caffeine pills and mix them with Gatorade to buffer drowsiness.
After his graduation, he experienced a drastic change in his amount of exercise and chose a diet that included less sugar. He found it hard to choose a caffeinated beverage to meet those needs.
“I began breaking open caffeine pills and mixing them with a bottle of water to get my afternoon energy,” he said. “But it was gross.”
He began researching and “working under the radar,” to create the initial product.
Pitzer said he’s the type of guy who prefers to do things quietly, until his work is ready to speak for itself. Except for his research, he mentioned his aspirations to no one until he was confident that the idea was going to become reality.
“At the end of the day, it’s you against the world,” Pitzer said. “I always felt like I had a destiny, but I didn’t know what it was.”
The official launch for Avitae was April 29 at the Lifestyles Community Pavilion at a concert by the band All American Rejects, and the product has been in stores since June 13.
Pitzer said that Avitae is targeted at four main groups of consumers: those he calls “enthusiastic nurturers,” meaning health-conscious females who are constantly on the run; “social butterflies,” or females aged 16-30 who set trends; “executives,” professionals who drink coffee in the morning, but something else in the afternoon; and “educated athletes,” who seek physical and mental challenges and believe caffeine can boost their performance.
“We’re really not trying to compete with coffee one bit,” Pitzer said.
Avitae is targeting the consumers who are currently drinking diet sodas and he believes Avitae will grab the interest of healthy beverage drinkers, he said.
“More of my patients drink caffeine than don’t,” Cynthia Wu, staff dietician at the OSU Medical Center said.
There are benefits linked with caffeine consumption and improved performance during physical activity, she said.
However, she said that water with the appropriate amount of caffeine would be better than other caffeinated products.
“If people are drinking a reasonable amount [of caffeine], it’s considered not to be harmful,” Wu said. “If people are looking strictly for the benefit of caffeine, I would recommend it.”
Avitae is available in various location. Their Web site, avitae45.com, has more information on the product and distribution. Pitzer said that people have already bought it as far west as New Mexico.
http://www.thelantern.com/campus/former-buckeye-brands-caffeinated-water-1.935910
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November 10th, 2009
Tags: avitae, Brian Pitzer, caffiene, entrepreneur, Kroger, Speedway, Walgreens, water
Posted in: General
Want to know more about us? Check out this awesome Springfield News Sun article about us, particularly our creator Brian Pitzer, that ran over the weekend!
Area man pours brainpower, money into product
Caffeinated bottled water is sold locally at Kroger, Speedway and Walgreen’s.
By Elaine Morris Roberts, Staff Writer
10:15 PM Saturday, November 7, 2009 Caffeinated bottled water seems like a rather simple idea, but when Brian Pitzer wanted it, he found he had to make his own.
Now he’s CEO of Vitality Distributing, which produces Avitae, a bottled caffeinated water that recently found its way onto store shelves.
Company headquarters are located at 7003 Post Road in Dublin.
The 1997 graduate of Greenon High School started the research and development process 21/2 years ago, after trying to modify his college habit of tossing caffeine pills into Gatorade.
“I needed an energy boost and the caffeine in the Gatorade worked. When I graduated, though, I went from 225 pounds of muscle to 250 pounds of nonmuscle and it was in large part from the sugar in the Gatorade,” said the former Ohio State University football player.
He tried putting the caffeine pills into bottled water, but said it was “gross, like tossing an aspirin which turned the water cloudy.”
A marketer and advertiser by profession, Pitzer started working to figure out how to solve his problem and create a product he could market, all while working a full-time job to support his family.
“I found out the U.S. soft drink industry makes $75 billion in sales, so I figured there’s got to be one in 1,000 people who would want to drink water with caffeine in it,” he said.
Avitae was released in June. The product is being sold regionally at Kroger, Speedway and Walgreen’s. “We targeted those three retailers because each is the biggest and baddest in its segment of the market,” he said.
Expansion plans will take Avitae into most of Florida and Texas by the end of the year; by the end of 2010, it will be in much of the rest of country.
“There’s no other product out there like it. It has 45 milligrams of caffeine, about the same as a diet soda, and the body has no problem metabolizing it because it’s such a clean product,” Pitzer said.
Figuring things out
To get started, Pitzer created an 800-page business plan.
“I’m not going to be the guy who gets out-thought,” he said, “I didn’t want to be the guy who says ‘I wish I would have.’ Succeed or fail, I was giving it my best shot — I wanted to do something revolutionary.”
Then, he researched everything — water quality, amounts of caffeine, bottle shapes, label design, packaging and demographics.
He came up with four distinct groups he believed would be interested in Avitae:
Enthusiastic nurturers: Health-conscious females, with children or not, who run in 1,000 directions at 1,000 miles an hour.
Social butterflies: Females from ages 16-30 who have few cares in the world, are health conscious and set trends.
Executives: Professionals who drink coffee in the morning, but drink water or diet soda in the afternoon.
Educated athletes: Professionals who test themselves and seek out physical and mental challenges such as triathlons or hitting the gym hard. They understand that caffeine can boost their performance by 15 percent.
He also realized that his product can be sold right next to coffee, since many morning coffee drinkers resort to other caffeinated beverages throughout the day.
“We’re not trying to compete with coffee at all. We can create partnerships with coffee sales outlets because you’ve got a group of people who are drinking caffeine and you’re not going to cannibalize your coffee sales,” he said. “When people stop to buy a latte, they might grab a four-pack of Avitae on the way out for the afternoon.”
Conversations with family friend and mentor Richard Kuss, retired president of The Bonded Oil Co., which became Speedway SuperAmerica, focused on creating a strong business plan, finding a good staff, creating an all-around quality product and test marketing.
Pitzer knew Kuss through a family relationship that started with his grandparents, Elwood and Betty Pitzer. One day he decided to pick up the phone, which started a relationship that has taught him a great deal about business.
“Brian did his homework and teamed up with knowledgeable people,” Kuss said. “This is a unique product so he needed to pinpoint his audience and do some marketing analysis.”
Kuss, whose company was one of the first in its niche to merchandise soft drinks, talked at length with Pitzer about the importance of packaging and store placement, especially with a new product.
Pitzer listened.
Throughout the development process, he and his designers have worked through 14 label revisions, with a few minor tweaks still to come. The four-pack carton also has evolved.
“It was important for us to have a bottle that looked good and stood out on the shelves because we’re entering very competitive landscape. We knew we had one shot, so we didn’t want to launch prematurely,” Pitzer said.
To be sure Avitae has every chance, Pitzer has poured about $350,000 of personal money into the project. “It’s everything I have — I’m broke, but hopefully it will come back full-circle. At the end of the day, I’m really proud of this product,” he said.
Investors are now on board — some on Avitae’s Board of Directors — and employees are receiving paychecks, something Pitzer sees as a success and a promise fulfilled.
“I made a promise to the board that we wouldn’t start paying ourselves until we started selling product,” he said. “We wouldn’t use investors’ money to pay salaries.”
Support system
Pitzer is quick to credit everyone around him for making what he deems his “simple idea” a success.
“It’s about the people who have helped me along the way,” he said. “I came up with the idea, but it’s the Dick Kusses, the Speedways, the people who started the company with me and have been there through thick and thin who need to take the bow. Without their support, I’d be just another guy with an idea.”
He’s depended on his wife, Melissa, for moral support and her own professional expertise in human resources.
“Without her, I don’t know whether I’d have been able to do it. She’s been the greatest thing on earth. No matter what comes from this, we both see it as a learning experience and we’re going to be better off for having tried,” he said.
He credits the “tenacity and gumption” to keep going despite many nay-sayers to his parents, Dick and Amy Pitzer, and his grandparents, all of Springfield.
“Growing up around my grandparents and seeing the success they had, I learned you can do whatever you want in the world — it’s all about seizing the day. I saw no reason to give up. Why stop? Why quit?,” he said.
And he has no plans on slowing down anytime soon.
Right now, Pitzer uses co-packers in Dallas and Florida, with one in Chicago that can be turned on quickly if necessary.
He’s got two others that can be utilized as distribution grows, so total capacity could be around 300 to 400 million bottles per year.
“We’ve got some of the biggest retailers and distributors in the country asking for our product,” he said. “We’ve got a lot of huge stuff on the horizon and 2010 is going to be insane.”
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August 20th, 2009
Posted in: General
Want to know more about ávitāe? Follow the link below to see us on WBNS 10TV Columbus!
http://mms.tveyes.com/MediaCenter/351180.7363/WBNS_08-13-2009_17.56.40.zip
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August 10th, 2009
Tags: avitae, brand ambassadors, columbus, Dublin, easton, Facebook, hydrenergize, tweet
Posted in: General
Did you know that ávitāe Brand Ambassadors travel all over to hydrenergize (hydrate + energize) Columbus? You may have seen them recently at Picnic with the Pops, Dublin Parade of Homes, The LC, 103.5 Heritage Jazz Festival, Easton Town Center or numerous other places. Brand Ambassadors will even visit your office or place of work to give you what we like to call an ávitāe intervention. ávitāe interventions are the perfect way to get through your mid-afternoon fatigue. We will supply your team with refreshing ávitāe which will hydrenergize your office and get you through the rest of the day! Interested in an ávitāe intervention? Tweet us at @ávitāe45 or send us a message on Facebook, we’d be happy to help hydrenergize!
 Brand Ambassadors hydrenergizing folks at Picnic with the Pops!
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