In a world of supercharged energy drinks, Malava LLC wants people to chill.
The Newport Beach company makes anti-energy drinks with vitamins, fruit juices, teas and kava, a South Pacific herb said to relieve stress. Steve Schneider, a cosmetic dentist in San Diego, tried the root while vacationing in Fiji and liked it. He envisioned a healthier alternative to alcohol.
Schneider started Malava in 2006 with the help of Ray Maher, a marketing consultant who worked for Snapple Beverage Corp.
Key Essentials Inc. in Rancho Santa Margarita makes the flavors for the company’s Malava Relax drinks. The drinks are mixed, bottled and packaged at Riverside’s Triple H Food Processors Inc.
Kehe Food Distributors Inc. of Illinois and Los Angeles-based Unified Western Grocers Inc. distribute the drinks to stores such as Albertsons LLC’s Bristol Farms and H-E-B stores in Texas.
A 16.9-ounce bottle sells for $1.89.
Malava’s challenge could be in swimming against the energy drink tide. Consumers used to Red Bull and Monster may balk, Schneider said. He said he’s betting on the trend toward organic, healthy foods.
Energy Mints
JoCo Brands LLC in Corona del Mar has come up with a Starbucks-type jolt without the coffee breath. The company makes sugar-free mints made with vitamins B-12, C and guarana, a natural form of caffeine.
A box of mints has the same amount of caffeine as five cans of Red Bull.
The peppermint and citrus mints come in sleek black boxes with mirrors on the inside of the lid. They sell for $3 to $3.69 at Target, Bristol Farms, Beverages & More, Gelson’s Markets, Barnes & Noble and Crowne Plaza Hotels & Resorts, among other places.
Ashley Talbott and Heather LauBach started the company in 2001 after seeing how energy drinks and coffeehouses took off. They started baking mints at their apartment with recipes found online. They soon realized they were making butter mints, not breath mints.
They teamed up with Robert Nickell of HNP Pharmaceuticals, a compounding lab in Torrance, and started developing flavors.
The mints now go by Vojo after Corona del Mar-based Altamar Ventures LLC invested in 2006.
Setting It Straight
We got some things wrong in a Jan. 22 law firms special report story about Lake Forest-based Info Beyond.
Technology work in Beckman Coulter Inc.’s lawsuit trial against Singapore contract electronics maker Flextronics International Ltd. actually was done by Oliver Stahel and others at Santa Ana’s Callahan & Blaine.
Callahan & Blaine represented Fullerton’s Beckman Coulter, which initially was awarded a record $934 million in damages from Flextronics in a breach of contract dispute. The companies settled in late 2003 for $23 million.
Stahel, who worked as Callahan’s information technology director at the time, helped put documents, charts, graphs and other items for the trial into an easy-to-use digital format. The effort is credited with helping Beckman prevail in the case.
“We had the capability to develop the courtroom presentation and Oliver helped develop it,” founding partner Dan Callahan said. “He really fit into Callahan & Blaine’s trial philosophy.”
The goal was to create an engaging courtroom presentation that would speed up the trial and help jurors understand the complex issues involved, Stahel said.
It wasn’t easy, he said. Stahel was in his early 20s when he worked on the Beckman case. He said he had nightmares of equipment failure and being late to court.
In 2004, Stahel started Info Beyond with Yousef and Kaz Alinaghian, founders of Computer Research Center in Lake Forest. He left Info Beyond a year later.
Now Stahel runs his own trial presentation and tech consultancy, Trial Werks, in Laguna Niguel. In all, He said he has worked on about 30 cases, four of which actually have gone to trial, including Beckman’s.
Stahel said he learned about computers from his father, an electrical engineer.
After graduating from Aliso Niguel High School in 1998, Stahel started fixing computers at the Law Offices of Gary C. Wykidal & Associates in Costa Mesa. In 1999, he went to work for the Irvine office of Kasdan Simonds Riley & Vaughan LLP, scanning documents, fixing computers and buying copiers and other office equipment.
After that, Stahel said he took some time off. He considered college but traveled abroad instead. He started looking for tech jobs when he got back and was hired at Callahan in 2003.
These days, Trial Werks does work for local law firms. Clients include Zurich Financial Services’ Irvine legal team, Marshall, French & DeGrave LLP.
