Halfday Ice Tea (Part 2) - From Gut Issues to Grocery Shelves

The Story of a Brand Show

Ramon Vela

Business, Entrepreneurship

5 • 145 Ratings

🗓️ 24 June 2025

⏱️ 39 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

🧾️ Download transcript

Summary

When it comes to building a better-for-you beverage brand, it’s easy to think it’s all about the product. But as Kayvon Jahanbakhsh, co-founder of Halfday Iced Tea, shares in this episode, building a brand people actually love is just as much about emotional connection, persistence, and timing.

This conversation is packed with insights into what it truly takes to break through in a crowded category, especially when you're on a mission to reintroduce Americans to a nostalgic drink with a gut-healthy twist.

Kayvon opens up about how he and his co-founder turned a personal health journey into a nationally recognized brand stocked in over 7,000 stores. We talk about retail wins, scrappy marketing tactics, and why doing the "unscalable things" early on helped them earn shelf space and consumer trust.

Whether you're a fellow founder, a marketer in the trenches, or just someone who loves a good iced tea comeback story—this one’s for you.

Here are some key moments from the episode:

* How a ulcerative colitis diagnosis led Kayvon to reimagine iced tea with prebiotic fiber and better ingredients

* Why consumer education and playful branding were critical to getting people to trust a functional beverage

* The turning point when they went from selling out of a garage to landing national retail distribution

* Why Kayvon believes “velocity is king” when it comes to scaling at retail

* His thoughts on brand-building in an era where transparency and taste both matter more than ever

Join me, Ramon Vela, in listening to the episode and get inspired by how Kayvon and the Halfday team are reviving a beloved drink for a new generation, with purpose, flavor, and hustle at the core.

For more on Halfday Ice Tea visit: https://drinkhalfday.com/

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Today’s Sponsors:

REViVE Amazon Marketing Partners: https://revivemp.com/

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Transcript

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0:00.0	Quick note, this is actually part two of a two-part interview with the founders of Half Day
0:07.1	Ice Tea.
0:08.1	So if you're listening to Part Two for the first time, don't worry, it stands on its own.
0:13.2	However, if you really want to learn about this amazing brand, don't forget to listen to
0:17.9	part one.
0:18.6	What's something that's really important to you and or makes you proud about the product
0:25.2	that's not found on the labels, not found on the website, not found on social media,
0:29.9	but you know that if someone knew about it, it would make a difference in their buying
0:33.9	decision.
0:34.3	I think about what most people don't see is the care and the amount of time
0:39.7	and trial that went into creating this product and getting it just right. And not only the
0:45.9	flavor, but the ingredients and the genuine gut healthy nature of it. Every can is literally something,
0:52.9	and I have one here and I'm sipping in during the interview is something that I can enjoy and I know that I
0:58.3	can drink it in either a flare or recovery and so while the brand looks fun and
1:03.6	inviting and and approachable on the outside there's so much intention and
1:08.7	trial that went into creating this and And I think a lot more people
1:13.1	knew that they wouldn't see it as just like another, you know, better for you product or something
1:18.1	like you said in the beginning of the interview, like AI generated. It comes from a real moment in
1:23.6	someone's life where they created something to essentially help them through a dark time in their lives.
1:30.4	And that's essentially where half they came from.
1:42.7	Hey, everyone. This is Ramon Bella. And this is another episode of the story of a brand.
1:48.5	Like always, we have an amazing guest and brand that we're going to feature on today's show.
	...

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