That’s the idea behind Water Joe, a caffeine-laced bottled water that’s quickly developed a loyal following in the Midwest. Chicago mortgage broker David Marcheschi, 29, dreamed up the idea in college. ““I didn’t like coffee or colas, but I still needed to study,’’ he recalls. ““I drank a lot of water, and wondered why someone couldn’t caffeinate it.’’ Two years ago, Marcheschi got together with a beverage-company chemist who developed a way to mask caffeine’s usually bitter taste, making Water Joe indistinguishable from regular water. Now each week, Marcheschi’s Johnny Beverage Co. and its partner, an Illinois-based artesian-well-water company, ship 70,000 16-ounce bottles of Water Joe to convenience stores and truck stops in 11 states.
A bottle of Water Joe has about as much kick as a cup of coffee, and the lively liquid is marketed more as a soft drink than as a mineral water. ““We are going after the people who want a little lift,’’ says Chris Connor, 35, who cofounded the company with Marcheschi. ““It sells better when it’s not in the water aisles, but when we’re with the Mountain Dews and Cokes of the world.’’ Commodities traders at the Chicago Board of Trade, where nothing messier than water is allowed in the pits, have found Marcheschi’s innovation particularly useful, as have college students, truckers and other chronic caffeine consumers. ““I’ve never been a coffee drinker, and I don’t like pop,’’ says 24-year-old Chicago investment broker Pat Harrington. ““This is a good substitute. At 8:30 when the market’s going, you want to get a jump-start on the day.’’ A few hardy souls have been known to whip up a hybrid that could jump- start a cadaver: real coffee brewed with Water Joe.
Licensing agreements to bring Water Joe to both coasts and Canada are in the works, but despite the wake-me-up water’s apparent success, its creator and his two dozen employees are all hanging on to their day jobs. ““Right now, I’m doing full-time mortgage-broking and full-time Water Joe,’’ says Marcheschi. We can’t imagine where he gets the energy.
