• Washington Post, Monday, August 17, 2009 10:35 AM

Red Bull begat a bevy of "energy" drinks. It also inspired the siring of its antithesis: "relaxation" beverages such as Drank, Vacation in a Bottle, Superliminal Purple Stuff Pro-Relaxation Formula and iChill, Ylan Q. Mui reports. Drank's slogan is "Slow your roll." IChill's is "unwind from the grind."

Funktional Beverages first thought about launching last year with an energy drink called Red Stuff, according to CMO Tim Lucas, but it found the market saturated. It created Purple Stuff instead, which has herbs and amino acids that it claims calms the mind and body. The target is the same 18- to 35-year-old male who is presumably amped-up on energy drinks in the first place.

This is not the kind of calm one gets from meditation or yoga, however. Relaxation to the target studs means surfing, water-skiing and cage fighting, according to Lucas. "We're about not being nervous as we jump out of a plane," he says. Having a 20-year-old who has been making such leaps during the rugby off-season, might I suggest that there's also built-in ancillary market for drinks that relieve secondary stress.

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