Young Entrepreneur finds her way into Ag Labs to create sports drink

By JOAN KITE

Essence Williams, 26, is aspiring to become a basketball coach, but along the way to fulfilling her dreams, she also decided to create a sports drink.

She has named this replenishment drink TigerLyte in honor of TSU, her soon-to-be alma mater.

“TigerLyte” is in the process of being patented with future hopes of it being produced in large quantities. TSU’s Research and Sponsored Programs has provided encouragement to Williams by providing necessary funding for the product.

“I envision TigerLyte as the sports drinks for HBCUs, similar to how Gatorade represents University of Florida,” Williams said.

Williams, who lives in Murfreesboro, is studying accounting economics and earning her master’s degree in Business Administration at TSU. She was not an agricultural student when she took an on-campus detour to the College of Agriculture labs to dream up her sports drink.

For help, she reached out and worked with agricultural professors Dr. Matthew Blair, Dr. Ying Wu, and Dr. Ravi Ramasamy.

Dr. Wu helped her create a replenishing and nutritional drink that boast natural cane sugar. Dr. Blair shared his research about the pseudocereal amaranth with Williams and together the pair settled on a natural coloring for the strawberry-flavored drink. And Dr. Ramasamy helped her with bacterial testing to ensure the drink’s safety.

“TigerLyte is unique from other sports drinks because it’s an all-natural sports drink with organic cane sugar as the sweeter,” Williams said. “It has 60 percent less sugar than Gatorade and it’s the closest thing to water. It can also be a water supplement unlike any other sports drink.”

Before she knew it, Williams had a definitive product complete with a business plan that she could pitch. Williams said she plans to produce the drink in five flavors: strawberry, orange, lemon-lime, blueberry, and mango.

She reached out to Dr. Ruthie Reynolds, TSU’s former director of the Center for Entrepreneurship and Economic Development, who put her in touch with TSU’s Research and Sponsored Programs (RSP). RSP agreed to invest in the drink and split any profits with Williams from its sales.

Williams said she hopes one sales counter that might boast her product

TIGERLYTE, Turn to page 49

Essence Williams, (left) a graduate student majoring in Business Administration, poses with models of her product TigerLyte, a sports replenishment drink. Williams found her way into the College of Agriculture labs where she got help from professors in creating her product, which is in the process of being patented. Photos by Joan Kite