Tenzing Norgay, Nepalese Sherpa mountaineer, was one of the first two humans known to have climbed Everest. His ideals were centred on living, by way of adventuring, travelling and learning. His namesake, Tenzing, is a new energy drink pioneering natural energy ideals, using ingredients and inspiration from the stimulating brew Sherpas drank when ascending the lofty peaks.
Second year Business Management students Michael Cassis, Emir Taha and Carl Hassan were sitting in the cafeteria at the Waterloo campus one day last November when Huib van Bockel, previously director of marketing at Red Bull UK, walked up to them and asked them to sample a drink.
“I have to admit at first it was strange, this guy came in with plastic bottles of this strange looking liquid – but, really, he seemed like a nice guy, he was handing out free beverages! When he explained to us how he thinks about the product, how it’s natural and why he thinks it’s better, we were pretty interested.â€
The KCL trio followed up their interest by contacting Huib and have been a part of the process ever since. Michael and Emir set about planning a marketing strategy, bringing in King’s students as focus groups to help determine taste, design, etc. and Carl arranged for the cafeteria to stock cans of Tenzing. Which, it now does, and is the first place in the world to do so; exactly a year since the drinks humble beginning as a strange looking liquid in a plastic bottle.
Evolution: No longer a strange liquid in a bottle, but a blue can instead
The drink contains no artificial ingredients and half the sugar of other energy drinks on the market. “I did the maths five times on this. If you replace one can of Relentless a day with a Tenzing, for a year, you’ll have saved yourself from 23 marathons worth of calories to burn.”
Team Tenzing also have an initiative to put 5% of their profits back into the source of their ingredients: nature. They’ve pledged to invest in promoting a cleaner planet. They also want to continue in the fashion in which they have begun and build their team by adding more enthusiastic members, such as Michael, Emir & Carl, in the words of founder Huib, “anyone can get involved!†Tenzing can be found on campus, at Pod restaurants as of Monday and soon, elsewhere.
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