Forget goat milk or fancy mandarins, honey water is the next big Chinese food fad — or at least that’s what medical nutrition investor EVE hopes.

Their honey health investment, Meluka Health has teamed up with water distiller Refresh Group (ASX:RGP) to create a Australian honey water for the Chinese market.

News of the new venture boosted shares in the company (ASX:EVE) by 18 per cent on open, lifting it as high as 2c in morning trade.

Refresh too was up 33 per cent on the news, to 8.4c.

Honey water will be a way for Meluka to dip their toe in the Asian market, where natural food products from Australia are popular.

“Working with Refresh to produce a honey water product is a great fit for the Chinese market and will help establish the Meluka Honey brand in China,” EVE investment director Ben Rohr said.

“This is a great first step for Meluka Health to enter into this bourgeoning market.”

EVE only finalised its 50 per cent investment in Meluka on Wednesday.

EVE shares have climbed since they said last month that hemp-seed honey will be on the market next year. Their share price is three times what is was just three weeks ago.

Refresh is Australia’s largest producer of distilled drinking water, and already exports to China.

They have traded between 5.6c and 8.5c in the past year.