For sisters Joanne (Jo) and Marina Nikoloulea, creating Australia’s first honey water goes beyond filling a gap in the market. Perhaps what stands out more in their business venture is the opportunity it provided them to blend the valued learnings of their Greek heritage and their family’s beekeeping tradition.

Bee Hydrated hit the market in 2016, introducing an alternative to other hydrating sports drinks. Its client base has steadily expanded, with people drawn by the benefits honey-infused water can offer.

“When you mix raw honey with mineralised water, this creates naturally occurring electrolytes for optimal hydration, plus it contains a wealth of vitamins, minerals, amino acids and antioxidants and the list goes on,” explains Marina.


Adding to the benefits, she says, is the fact that – in contrast to other mainstream flavoured beverages – honey water offers a ‘natural way to be hydrated’ free of refined sugars and sweeteners, with its rich flavour emanating from natural sugars, mainly fructose and glucose.

As Jo and Marina explain, mixing honey with water is a well-known practice with its roots tracing back to ancient Greece. They cite Hippocrates’ use of the mixture to prevent dehydration, among other techniques of blending honey with natural ingredients to soothe pain, treat diseases, or heal wounds, owing to its antibacterial properties.

Growing up in a Greek family of beekeepers – their parents were born and raised in the Peloponnese – the sisters found out early on about the value of honey-based home remedies, and one could say that it was a life lesson passed on by their dad in an entertaining way, much like the Windex scenes in My Big Fat Greek Wedding, just more natural.


“We have this funny memory of our dad while growing up. He would always recommend using honey to treat any sort of ailment, and we would be like ‘Dad, stop putting honey on my face!’,” Marina recounts with a laugh.

From a purely business perspective, the duo seems to complement each other’s expertise. Both are science graduates, with Marina having worked alongside their father in the beekeeping industry and extensively researched the medicinal benefits of honey, while Jo has professional experience in corporate marketing.

Describing the day they came up with the idea, Jo says she was just paying her sister a casual visit when Marina mentioned the evidence she had come across about the benefits of honey water. It wasn’t long before the sisters convinced each other to embark on their business venture.
It took nine months to develop the formula for the product as this was, at the time, a novelty in Australia and even uncommon at a global level.

“Back in 2015, we could hardly find anyone worldwide who had done the same thing, so we had to work really closely with the CSIRO [Commonwealth Scientific and Industrial Research Organisation, Australia’s national independent science agency] to develop the process and the formula,” says Jo.
“While doing our marketing research, we realised that the product sits between a lifestyle and a functional beverage,” she adds, owing to honey making a comeback in the ‘superfood’ industry and the fact that Australians are becoming more aware of the importance of staying hydrated.

While they say that the basic ‘recipe’of their honey water was formed in consultation with the CSIRO, Bee Hydrated founders proudly take full credit for developing the distinct flavours of the product’s range: orange blossom and cinnamon, lemon myrtle and green tea, and ginger and ginseng.
“We started researching all types of ingredients that work well together and picked these three flavours on the basis of the strongest combined benefits,” Marina points out.
Asked about the biggest challenge they had to face so far, they refer to the difficulty of getting the word out there about the benefits of honey water, given the budget constraints of a small business for promotion purposes.

Nevertheless, with Bee Hydrated featuring on the shelves of more than 50 Victorian and South Australian shops and cafes, it is safe to say that the business has found its niche in the Australian market.

The honey water product range can be purchased online as well and will soon start being distributed in Queensland.

Meanwhile, the Nikoloulea sisters are preparing to enter the international market, having already secured a contract with an Australian-dedicated food and beverage outlet and cafe located in Dubai. They also stock in Singapore and are finalising discussions with a Hong Kong retailer.

But according to the duo, no matter what wins the future might bring, their focus is and will continue to be in Australia; from the local producers they source the honey from, to the clientele base they have built along with the help of distributors and cafe owners, many of them being Greek, as they point out.
“We would like to express our gratitude to all these people for taking us on board and trusting us, we’re really grateful.”

For more info on the ‘Bee Hydrated’ series head to beehydrated.com.au