Our only claim to our Noni drink is it tastes less worse than any other noni drink,” said Thomas Pickett, owner of Kilauea Bakery and Pau Hana Pizza and inventor of Tom’s Super Sonic Noni Tonic. If you’ve had noni
Our only claim to our Noni drink is it tastes less worse than any other noni drink,” said Thomas Pickett, owner of Kilauea Bakery and Pau Hana Pizza and inventor of Tom’s Super Sonic Noni Tonic.
If you’ve had noni before, the taste of this drink will actually surprise you. It doesn’t taste that bad at all. It’s made with organic noni juice, ginger, olena (turmeric) and Hawaiian chili peppers. Those ingredients are good anti-inflammatory agents. Also, according to the National Institute of Health, “In laboratory studies, noni has shown antioxidant, immune-stimulating, and tumor-fighting properties.”
Pickett said when he moved here, he saw local families with jars of rotting noni on their front yard. “I asked about it and they said, ‘It’s a blood purifier,’” Pickett said. “I picked some, made some and it tasted awful.”
Over the years, Pickett worked on producing and perfecting his own noni drink.
“One thing I tried was fermenting it and making beer out of it,” Pickett said. “The quality of the noni is antibacterial/antifungal, so it killed all the yeast I put in.”
Instead of having noni rot in a jar, Pickett settled on making the drink fresher, fruitier.
“We ripen our fruit off the tree after five days,” Pickett said. “Instead of being rotten, it’s ripe (fruity).”
Pickett also grows ginger, olena and Hawaiian chili peppers at his home.
“We blend in a small percentage of ginger and chili in the noni tonic,” Pickett said, “then we filter it through a small micron filter and sell it.”
Pickett said the name and the final product — Tom’s Super Sonic Noni Tonic — came about four years ago, but before the name came about he sold noni juice for quite some time.
Tom’s Super Sonic Noni Tonic sells for $2 a shot or $25 a bottle.
