Jun Young Park, a Korean entrepreneur, is redefining the beverage scene with ABOVE WATER, a sparkling coconut water–based functional soda designed for modern life. His journey from the U.S. and Korea to Vietnam reflects curiosity, resilience, and a passion to build something meaningful.
We caught up with Jun Young Park to explore how he first came to Vietnam and what inspired him to build a business here.
What first drew you to Vietnam, and what made you want to stay?
About eight or nine years ago, a close Korean friend invited me to visit Ho Chi Minh City. I came without expectations, just curiosity. But that trip changed everything.
The city wasn’t polished, but it was alive. The hum of motorbikes, the smell of coffee stands on the sidewalks, street vendors calling out orders, the whole place moved with this rhythm of growth and possibility.
You can actually sense when a country is rising. There’s a certain energy in the air. Vietnam had that energy: young, hungry, open.
That visit planted a quiet thought in my mind:
“One day, I want to live here and build something from the ground up.”
It took nearly a decade, a few detours, and some failures. But I eventually made that thought real and moved here to start again.
That visit didn’t just inspire me, it grounded me.
I realized Vietnam wasn’t just growing fast; it was growing meaningfully. And I wanted to grow with it.
Why start a beverage business after your first venture in cosmetics?
I’ve been based in Vietnam for about two years now. My first business here was cosmetics distribution, and it failed. Not softly. It failed in a way that makes you consider going home.
I was actually preparing to leave when I met, by coincidence, the owner of one of Vietnam’s largest juice OEM manufacturers. That meeting completely redirected my trajectory.
Vietnam has extraordinary fruit and agricultural resources, truly world-class. Yet there wasn’t a local beverage brand that represented Vietnam internationally. Street juices are everywhere, but globally, no one was telling Vietnam’s story through beverages.
Having lived and studied in the U.S., I always dreamed of creating a brand that could sit proudly on shelves in Seoul, Tokyo, and New York and say:
“This is Vietnam.”
It wasn’t a business decision, it was almost instinct.
I didn’t want to just sell drinks. I wanted to build meaning into what people consume every day.
That vision brought me together with my mentor and now my investor. We created Earth Made, based in both Korea and Vietnam. And earlier this year, we launched NUFF, starting with our Passion Fruit Nectar from Tiền Giang.
NUFF taught us a lot, especially about scale and global potential. And from that learning, a new idea emerged.
Can you describe ABOVE WATER and what makes it special?
ABOVE WATER is launching this year. It’s a sparkling coconut water–based functional soda, what we call The Next Generation Soda.
We wanted to redefine what a beverage could feel like, not just taste like. ABOVE WATER isn’t about caffeine or sugar hits; it’s about rhythm, ritual, and modern clarity.
We source young coconuts exclusively from Bến Tre, Vietnam’s coconut heartland. Then we infuse them with targeted vitamins and functional ingredients to support different wellness needs.
Most sodas start with purified water. We start with coconut water, something naturally rich and alive.
That’s why we named it Above Water - water that grows above the ground. It represents elevation, clarity, and a lifestyle that goes beyond just hydration.
How does ABOVE WATER stand out from other beverages?
When we created ABOVE WATER, we didn’t set out to make a “healthier soda.” We were asking a different question — what if we could create the next generation of soda? We wanted to build something the world hadn’t seen before — something truly refined, simple, and alive.
Most drinks are either purely functional or purely indulgent. Either you sacrifice joy for health, or you sacrifice health for taste. We wanted to build a middle ground, something intentional, but still fun to drink. Something that feels good physically and emotionally.
So instead of starting with purified water, we began with coconut water from Bến Tre - something naturally alive, already full of minerals and a sense of place. Then we layered on function, not as a marketing idea, but as a way to support the small, everyday rhythms of life.
For example:
- Pure Hydration is for the reset moments, like when you’ve been on your feet all day, or you just need something clean and grounding.
- Energy Boost (Lime) is that light lift before the gym, or when you’re trying to push through the 4pm slump without grabbing another coffee.
- Gut Health (Yuzu) is for balance, the days your body is asking you to slow down and care for it a little more.
They’re not just “flavors.” They’re moments, ways of designing how you move through your day. They’re moods. Designed for the pace of real life: to hydrate, to reset, to breathe again.
And yes, they happen to be Vegan, No Added Sugar, No Preservatives, Halal, Gluten-Free, and Non-GMO, but more importantly, they’re gentle. They respect the body instead of overwhelming it.
I call it a new ritual.
Not a drink you chug, not something you forget about on your desk, but something that quietly supports how you live, think, move, and rest.
What is your vision for ABOVE WATER and your future in beverages?
I don’t think of ABOVE WATER as just a product. For me, it’s a cultural experiment.
We’re living in a time where people are rethinking almost everything: how we work, how we socialize, how we take care of ourselves. But our daily beverages haven’t evolved at the same pace. They’re either nostalgic, sugary comfort or hyper-functional performance drinks. There’s not much in between.
I want to build beverages that feel like companions to everyday life, drinks that meet us where we are, without demanding that we become someone else.
The long-term vision is to create a new beverage language that doesn’t come from the West looking outward, but from Asia looking forward. Vietnam is at the center of that. It has the raw materials, the creativity, and the energy of a country in motion. To me, it’s one of the most inspiring places in the world to build something new.
In the future, I see ABOVE WATER - and the brands we create after this - coexisting with life the way music does: shaping your energy without you even realizing it.
The future of beverages shouldn’t come from Silicon Valley, it should come from places like Vietnam. From nature, from emotion, from rhythm.
I see ABOVE WATER not as a drink, but as a quiet movement, something that changes how we hydrate, think, and live.
To explore more about ABOVE WATER, please view instagram @abovewater_official.