"They're cool," said one airman, adding he liked the taste because it did not have too strong a coffee flavor.
But they shook their heads `no' when asked if they would buy canned or bottled cappuccino beverages from a grocery store. "I assume they would be too sweet," one said.
Beverage giant Coca-Cola jumped in and bought the Planet Java company including the bottled-drinks line in January 2001 from founder Larry Trachtenbroit and a group of investors.
Using the keep-it-simple method, Trachtenbroit and his staff just asked people what they were looking for.
"I didn't have the money for focus groups. In three weeks, we went from bottle to final flavors," he said referring to his simplified test marketing approach.
Planet Java now has three flavors to appeal to the hip coffee-drinking set -- Javadelic, a low-fat offering, Caramocha which is a coffee chocolate-caramel flavor, and Tremble with enhanced caffeine.
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