Meet ‘Coolest Thing’ nominee JavaTwist

Steve Schuyler knows coffee—after all, he worked as a barista for 30 years. When he says coffee and fruit juice pairs well, you have to believe him.

“Coffee is very much like wine. It can be paired with so many different flavors,” he explained.

If you are skeptical, you probably haven’t tried JavaTwist. Launched in 2019, JavaTwist is a line of bottled beverages produced in Pewaukee that blend coffee with real fruit juices.

“I was running a coffee shop, and we were serving Arnold Palmers, and I ran out of iced tea. I had cold brew coffee and the lemonade I was using for the Arnold Palmers, so I tried them together,” he recalled. “I fell in love with what I found, and I served it fresh to my customers in the coffee shop. They were blown away. They loved it!”

After leaving the coffee business, Schuyler continued making the unique beverage at home. Not only was he hooked, but his friends and family also developed a taste for the sweet and tart drink. Soon he had more requests for the drink than he could keep up with. That was when he decided to turn his passion into a business.

The company began with Steve making the coffee and lemonade drink in a rented commercial kitchen. Today the company has its own storefront and nine different versions of JavaTwist.

The company bottles its classic coffee and lemonade combination, as well as lime, pineapple, apple and cranberry. The company has also added zero-added-sugar versions of the lemonade and cranberry beverages, which are sweetened with monk fruit.

The company also produces two drinks without coffee, designed for kids and those who don’t enjoy the flavor of coffee, blueberry lemonade and the best-selling chocolate lemonade.

“It’s lemonade with a back-end kiss of chocolate chip cookie, so you get a very distinct sweet lemonade taste, and then chocolate at the end. It’s so unique. It’s out-of-the-box. It’s crazy. That was my first non-coffee drink. I won several awards with that product, and it is my number one sales item,” he said.

If all of this sounds pretty cool to you, then it won’t surprise you that JavaTwist is one of the 130 nominees vying for votes in the Wisconsin Manufacturers & Commerce’s Coolest Thing Made in Wisconsin Contest.

JavaTwist may be one of the smallest manufacturers in the competition, but the company has set its sights on sales-fueled expansion.

The beverage maker has a presence at fairs and farmers markets around southeastern Wisconsin offering samples of the hybrid drinks. The brand recognition campaign appears to be working; the company was recently accepted into Meijer’s local supplier program. JavaTwist can be found on the shelves of seven metro-area stores. The beverage can also be purchased directly from the company website.

While JavaTwist develops a customer base for its bold and unconventional blends, it continues to brew and hand-bottle its beverages in its 800-square-foot production facility. But chances are they won’t be able to keep up with customer demand using this labor-intensive production method for much longer. Schuyler shared that he is currently investigating co-packaging options to support the company’s scaling plans.

To learn more about this unique beverage company on the rise, connect with JavaTwist here.