“The shipping bill of lading from November 2008 (#MAEU857273697) shows that EarthFruits received a large shipment containing drums of solids originating from Balboa, Panama (a port city located at the Pacific entrance to the Panama Canal) and arriving in Los Angeles.”

The shipper was Bela Iaca Ind. E Com. Polpas de Frutas Ltda. [translation; Beautiful Acai Fruit Pulps Ltd.]. Bela Iaca Ltd (located in Castanhal, Brazil) was founded in 2003 and manufactures fruit purees that are shipped to buyers worldwide. Their products include acai puree (available in 180 kg drums) as well as bacuri, cacau, camu-camu, cupuaçu, acerola, passion fruit, pineapple, guava, cashew, taperebá, soursop, lime, muruci, uxi, and mango.

A search for other bills of lading from Bela Iaca uncovered a shipment (#MAEU853684299) on February 23, 2007 of 260 drums (roughly 25 tons) of “frozen acai refined and pasteurized with 12% solids added with citric acid”. This shipment was also to Los Angeles and originated in Panama. The receiver of the shipment was…[drum roll please]…MONARCH HEALTH SCIENCES (now doing business as Monavie LLC).

Note also that the manufacturer specifies that the acai is only 12% solids, which represents lowto mid-grade acai (Type B). The same company also offers higher-grade versions, which apparently Monavie LLC was too cheap to pay for. These include a version that contains more than 14% acai solids (Type A) as well as an even higher-grade organic version.”

So here we have a forensic trail that tells us pretty much exactly how and where Monavie really gets (or got) their acai. As I [Vogel] speculated a long while back, they purchase cheap frozen acai pulp in 180 kg drums from an unaffiliated non-exclusive bulk supplier in Brazil. The drums of acai puree are then shipped by slow boat to Panama, where it is unloaded and transferred to another ship for slow transport to Los Angeles. After arriving in LA, the drums of acai puree are shipped overland by truck to the bottling facility in Utah. Monavie LLC has nothing to do with the harvesting or processing of the acai berries and they aren’t freeze-dried within 24-48 hours of picking.

Of course the big take-away here is in that last paragraph. MonaVie distributors like to say that MonaVie is there harvesting the acai. This is obviously not true. They like to say that they get the best quality acai. Again, the company they buy from has better quality available. MonaVie distributors like to say that MonaVie is there freeze-drying the acai to keep it fresh. That doesn’t seem to be the case either.

Huh, so how about those berries?

Originally posted 2010-03-21 15:18:47.

MonaVie says that it can’t disclose the amount of acai in it’s blend because it would be giving up a trade secret. In theory, someone else could use the information to help decode part of the MonaVie’s secret recipe.

One thing we do know, açai is the first ingredient on the MonaVie label. With 18 other fruits in the juice, there’s likely at least 5.3% açai. As a consumer, one should take a skeptical look with their money and not assume there’s any more than that. I don’t know anyone who drinks Coca-cola for health. They pay a small amount of money for the taste. The ingredients or secret recipe is not important to the value that one receives in buying Coke if they just want good taste. If MonaVie wants to bill itself as something that tastes great and price itself similar to Coke, I’m fine with that. If it wants to bill itself as a healthy beverage, it should have to show why it’s healthier than other competing beverages at less than 1/10th the cost (like V8 Fusion Açai Berry).

It is my belief that a premium price requires proof of a lot of premium ingredients. Is that what’s in MonaVie? Only MonaVie knows, and they aren’t saying.

Originally posted 2009-03-07 10:32:23.

I just finished reading this “side by side” comparison of MonaVie and Sambazon. After comparing the process behind the products, he concludes they are similar. He then states that a bottle of Sambazon is $2.99 while a bottle of MonaVie is $39.99 or more. Sounds like the MonaVie distributor is going to go with the sane choice and say that MonaVie is out-matched.

Of course the author doesn’t do this. He compares the cost per serving. There is where the logic falls apart. A true side by side comparison would be to compare the cost of MonaVie per ounce vs. the cost of Sambazon per ounce. You end up getting just an ounce of MonaVie for the $1.80/serving… but you get nearly the whole bottle in Sambazon’s $2.30/serving. So rather than congratulate Sambazon for using serving sizes that people actually drink, he twists it into some kind of negative. When you break it down ounce for ounce, the Sambazon becomes $0.29/ounce vs. MonaVie’s $1.80/ounce (plus shipping). It’s not close is it?

He then goes on to say:

No matter how much Sambazon I drink and no matter how many people I tell about Sambazon, I will never get paid to drink it.

That’s one of the very odd statements you’ll hear MonaVie distributors say. When you look at the MonaVie Income Disclosure Statement, you’ll note that 82% of the people (Distributor and Star level) who are actively trying to sell the juice, end up having to work 500 hours a year to break even on the $1500 of juice they drink. Do if you actively working the business, and you better than 82% of the people also working the business, you may get free juice for a year by donating 500 hours of your time. By the way, 500 hours is 31 days at 16 hours each. Yes, it’s a month of your life working 16 hour days for “free” juice. Another way to look at it is two months of your life working standard 8 hours of your life for “free” juice. That’s spending 1/6th of your yearly work life for “free” juice.

The other factor that I liked about MonaVie is the fact that you can have it automatically delivered to your doorstep every month.

MonaVie offers free shipping? Of course not. You have to pay for that, but with Sambazon, I just put it in my cart as I’m already at the store buying milk and other staples. The shipping cost of MonaVie is another negative.

MonaVie is 100% juice, there is no water and the juice in MonaVie Active and Pulse is not from concentrate. Only 1 of Sambazon’s drinks is 100% juice and they all contain water and juice from concentrate.

It’s completely unclear how MonaVie can add something freeze-dried without reconstituting it with water. It simply doesn’t make sense. Also since Sambazon is 1/6th the price of MonaVie, as long as it has more than 16.6% juice, you are getting more juice for your money. It’s simple math… You can get one ounce of 100% juice at $1.80 with MonaVie – or 6 ounces of Sambazon’s 80% juice (equal to 4.8 ounces of MonaVie’s 100%) for the same price. You still get nearly 5 times more for your dollar. That was the lowest amount of juice as Sambazon also had a 95% juice and a 100% juice option.

The sugar per serving for Sambazon is: 20g for Supergreens Revolution, 21g for Antioxidant Trinity and 30g for Strawberry Samba. The sugar per serving for MonaVie is: 3g for MonaVie Original, 3g for MonaVie Active and 7g for MonaVie Pulse.

More “serving size” trickery. Sambazon’s serving size is 8 ounces, so it’s sugar is actually less than MonaVie’s. It’s another example of false – “side by side” comparison. There’s more to it though as he goes into calories a serving and fat a serving. Again, you are getting 1/8th the amount of juice with MonaVie, so you should expect 1/8th the calories and 1/8 the fat.

My favorite source of lies was this one though…

Q: What is the ORAC score for your product?

A: Sambazon.com: One of our Acai smoothies or juices (10.4 fl oz.) have anywhere from 5,000- 15,000 ORAC units.
Monavie.com: Four ounces of MonaVie has an approximate ORAC value of 4,000 to 5,000 units. This is the approximate ORAC value of 5 to 13 commonly eaten fruits and vegetables. Health experts currently recommend consuming 5,000 ORAC units per day for optimal antioxidant protection.
***SIDE-BY-SIDE COMPARISON*** If you break down the ORAC unit scores per oz. Sambazon smoothies or juices have between 481 to 1442 units per ounce and MonaVie has between 1000 to 1250 units per ounce.

We already determined that MonaVie is clearly lying when it says it’s approximately 4000-5000 ORAC units. This is a big advantage for Sambazon.

So the real side-by-side comparison:
Sambazon: 481 to 1442 ORAC units/ounce (average is 961.5 ORAC)
MonaVie: 672.6 ORAC units/ounce

Sambazon Cost/ounce: $0.29
MonaVie Cost/ounce: $1.80

So for 1/6th the price, you can get what is likely to be 30% more ORAC.

Originally posted 2009-09-23 16:47:10.