If you're in the kitchen mixing tea and juice in search of the perfect drink, Tradewinds Beverage Co. has something for you.

The Cincinnati company's new Greenergy Double Brew, unveiled in late July, is aimed at just that audience.

Tradewinds already has it in independent stores and others such as Wild Oats Market, and should soon have it on shelves at local Kroger stores.

The 16-ounce glass bottles retail for about $2.

The beverage is brewed with the equivalent of four green-tea bags. Flavors include cranberry, pomegranate, blueberry and Concord grape.

Beverage industry trends are pointing in the direction of tea-juice drinks, with Ocean Spray now advertising nationally its own four juice-and-tea combinations.

Greenergy has upward of 10 percent fruit juice.

It also contains natural caffeine.

"It's a unique way to capitalize on the power-drink phenomenon, delivering an all-natural product with everything else that's good for you," said Tradewinds marketing director Christy Lichtendahl.

Tradewinds still sells several juice products, but not in Cincinnati. For the last several years it has concentrated on growing its portfolio of tea products.

Museum's helpers

Think volunteer labor isn't valuable? Think again.

The Cincinnati Museum Center counted the volunteer hours at its Queensgate facility, from the corporate types on its board of trustees to those who offered to work one day at the Boofest Halloween carnival.

The totals? Volunteers filled 1,820 positions for 88,232 hours, or the equivalent of 51 full-time positions. Plugged into a national formula, that means volunteers contributed labor valued at $1.5 million during the fiscal year that ended June 30.

"We probably couldn't even open our doors without our volunteers," said Angie Smorey, director of volunteer services.

'That's a big number'

It didn't get national television coverage or big sponsor dollars, but the 2004 North American Roller Hockey Championships still made an impact here.

The event attracted about 14,000 people to town July 16-31, filling rooms in 24 hotels for an estimated 8,500 to 10,000 room nights, according to the Greater Cincinnati Sports Corp.

That's a big number, but the concentration of those people in Cincinnati's northern suburbs was the biggest in years, executive director Leslie Spencer said. "That's similar to what a citywide event would have, but it's all in our northern properties," she said.

Took a risk

The championships were one step in paying back a gamble that Sports Plus in Evendale made last year. Even before the bid, owner Greg Martini had converted an indoor soccer field for an in-line rink, and he closed the ice rink down to add two more for the event.

While he had more people in the building, higher costs made the event a wash financially. But if the sport grows here, it will pay off in the long term, he said.

"It wasn't a two-year decision for me, it was a five- to 10-year decision," Martini said.

E-mail cpeale@enquirer.com