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By Tony Vieira
Count the cans in your local cooler that use the word “clean” somewhere on the front. Clean energy, clean caffeine, clean fuel. By number one hundred, you may begin to realize that at some point the word stopped describing anything and started functioning like a coat of paint, covering what’s underneath in a pleasant, but thin coat. Industry people even have a name for it: “clean washing,” when a brand leans on words like “clean” or “natural” and bets you won’t turn the can around.
It’s usually a safe bet. But it’s often also a lie.
The Word Doesn’t Mean Anything
The reason so many brands get to do this is because “Clean” has no legal definition. Neither does “natural.” The FDA has never formally defined either term, and no agency signs off on what a company means when it prints “clean” across a can in friendly rounded font. That means every brand gets to give it whatever meaning they want, which is a suspiciously convenient arrangement for them and a lousy one for you. A word that can mean anything ends up meaning whatever’s cheapest to formulate, and “natural” claims specifically generate a steady stream of lawsuits, because a term with no fixed definition is basically an invitation to argue about it in court.
What’s Usually Hiding Behind It
“Natural flavors” can legally cover hundreds of processed compounds, since the rule only requires the flavor’s original source material to be natural, not the lab work that happened between that source and your can. The vitamins stacked in most panels are synthetic, dosed high enough to hit an eye-catching percentage on the label. And plain “caffeine,” the way it shows up on most ingredient lists, is usually synthetic, manufactured from industrial raw material overseas and shipped in bulk since there’s no requirement for brands to say where it came from. Japan is the only country that bans synthetic caffeine outright. Everywhere else, the label just says “caffeine” and lets your imagination fill in the rest, probably picturing a leaf instead of a chemical plant.
A drink can say “clean” up front and still be built almost entirely from lab inputs on the back. Both things are legally true at once.
Ten Seconds Is All It Takes
So what can you do to make things more even? Well, it starts with skipping every adjective on the front. Go straight to the ingredient list and read it slowly. Can you picture most of it as something that grows like a plant, a root, or a fruit? Or is it a column of isolated compounds propped up by one overworked “natural flavors” line? Short and recognizable is a decent sign. Long and unpronounceable, sitting behind the word “clean,” usually means the label was playing Atlas holding the label on its back. Check the sugar count while you’re down there too. “Clean” says absolutely nothing about how much of it made it in, agave syrup included.
Capital “C” Clean
So what does “clean” actually look like when a brand is willing to show its work?
Take mōcean, a functional energy drink formulated by Tony Vieira after more than three decades in the beverage industry. Instead of relying on vague front-of-can claims, the brand lets its ingredient panel do the talking:
Purified Filtered Water, Natural Flavors, Citric Acid, Organic Green Tea Caffeine, Magnesium Citrate, Shiso Perilla Extract, Echinacea Extract, Panax Ginseng Extract, Vitamin C, Ocean Salt, Stevia, Elderberry Extract, Zinc, Vitamin B12.
That’s the entire list. No taurine. No sucralose. No proprietary blends hiding behind an asterisk.
The caffeine comes from organic green tea, 130mg a can, roughly 1.5 cups of coffee, enough to survive lunch with your in-laws without hallucinating in the carpool lane on the way home. Tony Vieira, who formulated it after three and a half decades brewing for Anheuser-Busch and White Claw, has said flat out that he wasn’t going to photocopy an existing ingredient panel and slap a new label on it. Dosing something high just to print a bigger number, or tossing in an ingredient purely because a competitor has it, doesn’t survive contact with an actual cost sheet. It’s just expensive theater.
No sugar. No sucralose. About 10 calories a can, sweetened with stevia instead of the syrup blends most of the category uses to bury a harsh vitamin dose. Shiso alone is doing more for your inflammation and allergies than whatever mystery dust is floating around in a can called something like EXTREME BLAST.
Flip Yours Too
“Clean” is a word a brand chooses to put on itself. Nobody grades it, nobody enforces it, nobody stops a company from printing it over a formula built entirely in a lab. The ingredient list is the only part of the can that isn’t marketing copy. So read it, ours included, and let the back of the can settle the argument the front is trying to win on our behalf.
Find us at drinkmocean.energy.
Sources
- Davis Wright Tremaine, Food + Bev Law Blog. “The Dirt on ‘Clean’ Labels.” https://www.dwt.com/blogs/food–bev-law-blog/2017/04/the-dirt-on-clean-labels
- Institute of Food Technologists. “Quest for Clean Labels Causes Murky Legal Actions.” https://www.ift.org/food-technology-magazine/quest-for-clean-labels-causes-murky-legal-actions
- Organic Authority. “Natural vs. Synthetic Caffeine: Why the Difference Matters.” https://www.organicauthority.com/health/need-a-lift-or-a-jolt-the-important-differences-between-natural-and-synthetic-caffeine-natural-caffeine-vs-synthetic-why-the-difference-is-important
- The Manual. “How mōcean Is Redefining Energy Drinks for Parents and Professionals.” https://www.themanual.com/food-and-drink/mocean-energy-drink-wellness-ingredients/
- mōcean. “Mandarin — Product Details.” https://drinkmocean.energy/products/mandarin
Tony brings 36 years of beverage manufacturing expertise to mocean®, including his pivotal role as brewmaster and quality leader at Mark Anthony Brewing, where he was part of the team that helped create White Claw. His career also includes transforming Blue Moon from a struggling brand into the largest craft beer in the country through formulation improvements and production streamlining. His career spans leadership roles at Anheuser-Busch, Coors, MillerCoors, and FedEx corporate strategy. With a Bachelor’s in Biology from St. Anselm College, an MBA from Vanderbilt University focusing on corporate strategy, and credentials as a Certified Brewmaster, Tony combines scientific rigor with business acumen. His scientific background and “calibrated line of sight to the consumer” have enabled him to fine-tune beverage categories and accelerate market adoption.
Married 37 years to Cheryl with two adult sons, Tony draws inspiration from his late Filipino mother’s wellness wisdom and his journey from corporate brewing to entrepreneurial innovation. He is currently exploring opportunities to acquire a brewery in Portsmouth, New Hampshire, which could save approximately 50 jobs.
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