The following article by Kathy Gerhardt was first published in the August/September 2011 Rollin’ Oats Journal.

Christine Wheeler is not a native Minnesotan, but it is clear that life in the “Land of 10,000 Lakes” agrees with her. Big life milestones began happening for her, in this state, in the early 1990’s.

“I was doing a marketing internship at General Mills between my two years at Wharton business school. My husband, Frank, had already graduated from Wharton and was working at Proctor and Gamble,” she recalled. “We would see each other most weekends. The weekend we got engaged, he was here in Minneapolis and proposed to me at the Nicollet Island Inn.”

That was merely the start of a very exciting life together. Christine and Frank worked together in Cincinnati, lived in Japan for a time, then settled in Princeton, NJ, for several years before relocating to Minnesota where they became members of Linden Hills Co-op.

Wheeler’s family began taking shape when her first son, Hunter, was born 13 years ago; next came Jackson and then Charlie. Three energetic young boys might seem like more than enough for most people, but Wheeler had other ideas.

Soon after Hunter was born, “there were some issues having a second and so we were looking into adoption. At that time I saw an article that just really left an impact on me,” Wheeler explained candidly. “They had taken pictures of people walking over a dead baby girl on the street and, finally, in the late afternoon an old man picked her up and buried her. Given the issues we were having, it just made such an impact on me.”

Those images stayed with her for years and eventually, after their third child was born, the Wheelers decided to adopt. They anticipated that the process would take a year and a half, at the most. Nearly five and a half years later, they were called to China to pick up the newest member of their family, a beautiful daughter named Grace.

“We feel so blessed we have her and she has been such a joy. She’s brought out the best in all of us,” said Wheeler. “I’ve seen a different aspect of my boys – they are so amazing with her. It’s great.”

While they navigated the adoption process, Christine followed her heart with another project and “gave birth” in a whole different way – to a brand new company.

“We went to pick her up in China the same month we launched Drazil at the Linden Hills Co-op,” she said. “It’s really unbelievable that they happened at the same time. It has been a crazy seven months.”

Drazil 100% juice is unique in that the fruit concentrate isn’t mixed with plain water; it is reconstituted with tea. The naturally caffeine-free herbal tea blend of Rooibos, Hibiscus, Rose Hips and pomegranate adds extra vitamins, minerals and antioxidants to the juice.

“I’m an avid tea drinker and worldwide a lot of children drink tea.” So Wheeler asked herself, “If tea is so healthy for adults, why aren’t our children drinking it, too?”

She also had a very personal reason for developing a different, healthier version of a very ubiquitous children’s beverage.

“My oldest son was having some health issues. He has allergies and asthma, and he also started developing motor ticks. I started looking at what he was eating,” she explained. “I wanted to cut out high fructose corn syrup and artificial dyes. When he has [drinks] with red dye, it seems like he ticks more. So he needs to have drinks that are healthy.”

Wheeler knew that her product needed packaging that was fun, eye-catching and memorable. But most importantly, Drazil (“lizard” spelled backwards) needed to taste good; and her kids were among those to taste the product throughout its development.

“They tested a lot, their friends tested a lot and their friends tested a lot,” Wheeler said with a smile.

Drazil is available in fruit punch and apple, and it was officially launched in September 2010. Linden Hills Co-op was the first store to carry the product.

“Remember we just brought home the baby from China. So we stayed with a two-store lead market until things settled down,” she commented. “We just started expanding to other stores in March and April.”

“I really believe in our product and our idea. Kids say our product tastes great.” Wheeler added, “I love what I do. I love creating something from scratch and doing something healthy for kids.”