2 to pitch coffee idea on ‘Shark Tank’
Segment on Cedarville start-up toappear at 9 p.m. Sunday on ABC.
A pair of Cedarville businessmen believe they’ve developed away to have the perfect water forbrewing coffee and will get a chance to showofftheirproductnationally when they appear on “Shark Tank” thisweekend.
Charles Nick and Taylor Minor launched the start-up in October last year that will focus on a critical but sometimes overlooked part of the brewing process— the water. Their product, Third Wave Water, will be pitched to the investors on the show that airs on ABC at 9 p.m. Sunday. It allows customers to add a packet of minerals to distilled water, creating a cup of water that tastes the same every time.
Both have years of experience in the coffee business. Minor owns Telemetry Coffee, a small coffee shop in Cedarville. Nick owns The Wright Cup, a coffee subscription company.
“We were trying to solve a problem that really both of us were facing,” Nick said. “I was traveling a lot for work and picked up on an issuemy customerswere having. Every city Iwent to, the watermade a difference in the flavor.”
Minor is such a coffee aficionado his shop includes a customwater systemand a laboratory. He was already selling his own water to customers to take home to ensure his coffee tasted the same at their home as it did in his store.
Their solution was to develop a combination of minerals that can be added to a gallon of distilled water. The start-up sells a box of 12 packets for $15.
“There are coffee nerds that make water already at home from minerals,” Minor said. “Our question was whether we can make it into doses for one gallon, andcanwemake it water soluble and easily duplicable?”
The duo has tweakedtheir product since, and nowsells https:// thirdwavewater.com/ The episode airs at9p.m. onABC the packets in all 50 states and about the same number of countries, Minor said.
The “Shark Tank” episode has already been taped. They’ve also explained their invention at an coffee trade show and got a good reaction. But Minor and Nick hope the television show gets their idea in front of a bigger audience to see how the general public reacts.
“We’rewaiting to see after the showwhat people think,” Minor said. “What’s the narrative after the fact? Do we look like a bunch of country bumpkinswith thissillyproduct, or does it come across as really cool and people want to share it?”
The business is also developing otherproducts, including a system to make water taste more uniform in coffee shops and a product to make already-brewed coffee less acidic.