On New Year’s Eve 2019, Joe Harawira was at a barbeque in Whakatāne drinking pineapple kombucha with his friends Wayne Atkins and Lance Paora. As the conversation turned to discuss their non-alcoholic beverage, the friends joked that there must be something better to drink than this (Kohere, 2022). And so the idea for a new non-alcoholic beverage was born. Their idea was to create a drink that reflected their Māori culture and the East Coast of New Zealand (known in Māori as Te Ika-a-Māui).

Deciding that combining lemon juice from Hawke’s Bay, the natural healing properties of mānuka honey from the East Cape, and carbonated water would be a potential winner, the trio set out to develop a new honey drink. The next day they researched online to see if anyone was making a honey beverage and found that there were a couple of companies, but none of these were producing premium drinks. The trio wanted to create an elegant non-alcoholic alternative to champagne that looked great in a wine glass and could be used for special celebrations. And so the idea for Wai Mānuka was born.

One of the factors that make Wai Mānuka a premium product is that it contains mānuka honey, which is widely known for its healing properties. The name “manuka” comes from the way it is harvested from the Mānuka tree and the honey is naturally occurring in Australia and New Zealand. Mānuka is one of the most expensive kinds of honey you can buy due to its reputation for having antiviral, anti-inflammatory, oral health, and digestive properties (Wai Mānuka, 2022).

Honey is a big business in New Zealand. In 2020, New Zealand exported $505.5 million of honey to overseas markets (Apiculture New Zealand, n.d.). This honey is eaten and also converted into a range of health and beauty products. China, the United States, and Germany are three of the biggest export markets for this honey (Ministry for Primary Industries, 2022). Harawira, Atkins, and Paora saw an opportunity to capitalize on this reputation and produce a drink that taps into the global non-alcoholic drinks market – a market that was valued at an estimated $1.25 trillion in 2021 and is growing rapidly (Kohere, 2022).

The process of producing and commercializing the drink was not easy. Their first attempt to make it in a SodaStream exploded (Kohere, 2022). The trio spent the next few months developing the recipe and brand. The concept was that the drink would be he taonga (“a treasure), and the branding was distinctly Māori, with the design reflecting the journey of the bees that create the honey and the moon’s influence on the seasons in New Zealand (Wai Mānuka, 2022).

It was important to them as founders that the brand reflected Tikanga (Māori customs). The result is a beautiful bottle that is sold individually in cardboard packs that clearly resemble beer or cider and signal the drink’s status as a non-alcoholic alternative for celebrations. A business was established under the name ‘Three Māori Boys’.