An Inspiring story to tell...

Elevate Your Energy With This Innovative Local Company

Rviita Energy Tea is about better ingredients, its about better packaging, its about making people feel revitalized. Rviita Energy Tea is a company with a big purpose, and a really big why.

The origins of Rviita date back to when Mitch, founder of Rviita, was out with a good friend and a great night quickly turned into a nightmare. After a few drinks and a fun night out, Mitch found himself standing over his best friend calling for help as his friend temporarily stopped breathing and clutched his left side. They rushed him to the emergency room hoping he would be okay.

After several tests and many tense minutes, a doctor walked in to proclaim Mitch’s friend had suffered a minor heart attack, one that was attributed in part to the energy drinks they had been drinking that night. He was only in his early twenties at the time and fortunately made a full recovery, but the experience had a lasting impact on Mitch, and proved to be the great lightbulb moment behind Rviita.

Disturbed by the events of that evening, Mitch began looking for a healthy alternative to the chemical filled energy drinks on the market. He wanted something with clean, simple ingredients, and a brand that he could resonate with and fit into a professional and healthy lifestyle. To his dismay, nothing on the market came even close to meeting these needs. Perhaps this was a problem that could be solved?

Mitch brought the idea to his best friend, Rob, and his sister, Karly, who were working as a geophysicist and nurse at the time. They put their heads together and decided, despite having no experience in the industry, that this was a problem worth solving and could really make a difference in people’s lives. They had no idea what a wild ride they were in for!

The early days of their business journey began with long sessions of mixing all sorts of different ingredients together in a home kitchen, trying all different kinds of caffeine sources and natural ingredients. One interesting observation they began to make in these early days of testing was how they always felt better after drinking natural caffeine from tea, as opposed to caffeine from coffee or energy drinks. After doing some research, they found studies showing the power of the amino acids and tannins naturally found in tea, and how it can prolong the effects of the caffeine. This research was what ultimately lead them to create a line of natural energy teas.

The next big challenge was finding the perfect packaging for their delicious blend of energy teas. Something very important to Karly, Rob, and Mitch is looking after the environment and being a great steward of the planet, so they began their search for the best possible packaging to meet this goal.

Mitch had experience as a water sustainability engineer and learned the power of examining the full lifecycle of a product to determine its environmental impact. He originally planned for Rviita to be in a glass bottle, but after doing a deep dive into the data, he was shocked to find how much water, greenhouse gases, and fossil fuel usage can be associated with glass bottles and aluminum cans. One packaging type rarely used in the beverage industry was flexible packaging. These packages had amazing environmental stats but were not widely used in north America for beverages.

By welding freezer paper together with a curling iron, and after hundreds of iterations, the team went on to design a first of its kind flexible beverage pouch that now has an industrial design patent in Canada and one pending in the USA. It’s unique design and durable drinking experience has helped Rviita differentiate the brand in stores across Canada.

Once packaging was sorted out, Rviita went to production and officially launched to market in October of 2019. Working out of Mitch’s garage, the three founders quit their jobs shortly after and went door to door getting Rviita into stores all over Calgary. Their first big win was a partnership with Calgary Co-op in March of 2020, launching into all 23 stores at the height of the pandemic. By the end of the year, Rviita had expanded into nearly 300 stores across Western Canada.

In 2021, Rviita continued to grow thanks to a company-changing partnership with Safeway. Their demand increased so much they were no longer able to keep up with orders using their existing manufacturing partnerships, and so the team made the bold decision to attempt building their own production line in their home city so they could take control of making their product. They finally moved out of Mitch’s living room, took on a 6000 square foot lease of a warehouse in northwest Calgary, and began constructing Canada’s first automated production line for their beverage pouches.

It took nearly two years of construction and research and development to complete the production line but come 2023 the Rviita team is now producing all their beverages out of their own facility in Calgary. Rviita owns equipment that had never been on Canadian soil before and is the first manufacturer in Canada with their capabilities.

The brand is now carried in over 1000 stores across Canada, including Safeway, Sobeys, Whole Foods, Co-op, Superstore, and hundreds of independent retailers. They also recently won the best non-alcoholic beverage at the Made in Alberta awards.

Rviita aspires to take their product across the globe, helping people all over the world with their better-for-you energy drinks. They credit God, their parents, and the incredible support of their customers and community for their early successes.

Find Rviita at a local store near you, on Amazon, or their website Rviita.com.