John Craven

This morning, The Wall Street Journal said that The Coca-Cola Company was in talks to acquire the Monster Beverage Company in what would be the company’s largest acquisition to date (Monster has a market cap of over $11 billion). However, at 4PM Eastern, Coke issued a statement denying that there are any acquisition talks and simply chalked it up to standard communication that the two parties have over their existing distribution relationship. Sorry folks, no deal today……

Breaking news as the Wall Street Journal has reported that Coca-Cola is in talks to buy Monster Beverage. The energy drink giant has a market capitalization of more than $11 billion and would be the largest brand acquisition for Coke. Shares of Monster Beverage have skyrocketed on the news, fluctuating between $75 and $79 per share.

In celebration of their 20 year anniversary, AriZona is offering the chance for their fans to vote — via Facebook — on one of three new flavor concepts that they’ve created. Since it would be impossible to have every fan that votes try the flavor samples (and what fun would it really be to just vote based on the name of a flavor?), AriZona asked a variety of people, including food writers, celebrity chefs, random consumers on the streets of New York, and yours truly, to work as “Flavor Panelists.”

The latest Expo West show turned out to be the biggest on record with more than 60,000 attendees and over 160 beverage-related exhibitors packing the event. Marching through the vast halls of the Anaheim Convention Center, BevNET’s John Craven and Andrew Guard examine new and continuing trends seen at the show including new uses for coconut water, the growth of alkalized waters, natural energy, “refined” refreshment, and the increasing use of chia and oats in wellness drinks.

This morning, PepsiCo announced that it would be trimming 8,700 employees — 3 percent of its global workforce — as part of a cost-saving program intended to recoup $1.5 billion in projected expenditures over the next three years. News of the cuts confirmed expectations reported over the past month, and came as the company reported its fourth-quarter and full-year 2011 results.

We’re pleased to announce that as of December 2011, we are changing the name of Beverage Spectrum to BevNET Magazine. The start of a new year seemed an appropriate time to extend the BevNET brand, which you already know from our digital offerings and from BevNET Live, our conference series, to include the print side of our business. We also plan to enhance BevNET Magazine to offer expanded coverage of the supplier and product development components of the beverage business, as well as the growing craft beer industry, while maintaining our focus on new product coverage, trends and innovation.

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Today, I’m pleased to announce the official launch of the mobile version of BevNET.com. With over 10 percent of BevNET.com’s traffic in 2011 coming from mobile devices (and we suspect much more in 2012), we decided that it was time to give mobile readers an optimized version of BevNET.

If you operate a new beverage company (meaning your brand is less than 1 year old), the New Beverage Showdown 2, which is taking place at BevNET Live Winter 11 on December 5 and 6, is your chance to get your brand in front of the industry (What is the New Beverage Showdown 2?).  However, the deadline to apply is rapidly approaching, with applications due by this Wednesday, November 9.  Aside from exposure to our audience of investors, distributors, and other industry professionals, there’s $5,000 in cash going to the winner.  Click the link below to apply now.  Questions?  Feel free to contact me via email.

With more than 100 beverage-related exhibitors and over 20,000 attendees, Natural Products Expo East returned to Baltimore after a three year stint in Boston. While Expo East lacked the thunderous atmosphere that Expo West enjoyed earlier this year, the show did feature a number of new and innovative beverage companies introducing products in growth categories like tea, coconut water and aloe juice, as well as several rebrands and repackaging efforts – most notably by Honest Tea.

Back in October, Harmless Harvest showed off their USDA Organic coconut water at the 2010 Expo East Show in Boston.  They created quite a buzz for themselves — so much so that they had to go back to the drawing board and figure out how to launch this product in a way that would scale.  Now, several months later, the wait is over.  Fortunately, they put the time to good use, having come up with something that’s even better than what they showed at Expo East — 100% Raw Coconut Water.  Instead of using heat to pasteurize the product (they…

This morning, BevNET received the very sad news that Ed Slade has passed away after a battle with cancer. Ed’s time in the industry will not be forgotten, having worked with a host of food & beverage companies both big and small, including ConAgra, Group Danon/Evian, FIJI Water, Twelve Beverages, and Owater. His biggest and most impressive feat came during his tenure at FIJI, where, as President and COO, he led the brand from being its startup roots into what eventually became the number one bottled water in the US.

The most talked about segment at our recent BevNET Live Summer 11 event in NYC was the “New Beverage Showdown”, a new beverage brand competition that we developed in partnership with our sponsor, Coca-Cola’s Venturing and Emerging Brands Unit.
We were so proud of the way it went – adding a bit of drama to the second day and all – that we’ve decided to post the presentations, as well as the debrief of the winner.…

An exciting competition at this summer’s BevNET Live in Manhattan will allow one new beverage brand to win $5,000 in cash and other prizes valued at $15,000 – as well as gain valuable exposure and advice – as part of the New Beverage Showdown, a two-day live product and plan review debuting at this summer’s BevNET Live in Manhattan. Sponsored by VEB, a business unit of Coca-Cola North America.

It’s been a big couple of years for husband-and-wife team Theo and Kara Goldin. Their company, Hint, which produces unsweetened essence waters, has doubled year-over-year sales, is nationwide in Starbucks, and has a product that’s well positioned at a time when more and more consumers are seeking natural, low-sugar beverage options. But that wasn’t always the case for Hint.

The new product season got off to a blazing start at Natural Products Expo West. Whether they were real introductions, re-introductions of products from earlier in the year, or soon-to-come products being poured from jugs, this year’s Anaheim-based show featured a veritable flood of new beverages for attendees to consider. We’ve created a video tour of some of the most interesting ones – and will be reviewing as many as possible in the days and weeks to come.…

With more than 130 beverage companies buying booth space, and a few dozen more tramping the aisles, Natural Products Expo West provided a near-comprehensive look at the way entrepreneurial beverage brands are growing, and also served to underscore the vital nature of the natural channel when it comes to introducing new products. Even brands not necessarily considered “natural,” like FRS and Activate, took up booths to battle channel stalwarts like gourmet juices, full-leaf teas, and coconut waters for retail buyers’ attentions.…

Selling energy drinks to children has been a hot topic in the media lately (there are stories like this… almost daily), with most of the press being of the opinion that children should not be consuming energy drinks.  Grom Bomb takes a proactive approach to this subject, with a caffeine free formulation that’s designed to deliver hydration and energy without the use of caffeine.  Grom Bomb is specifically targeting kids that are part of the action sports segment — a place that has been a very popular segment for energy drink offerings.  

Kombucha continues to be one of the more innovative categories in the beverage space, with a variety of regional companies popping up around the country.  Quality and style varies from one brand to another, as does their method of bringing their brand to the market.  One of those companies is Beyond Kombucha from Astoria, NY.  Started by three like minded people, the brand was created to produce gourmet quality kombucha fermented tea using fine Asian, African and South American teas.  And, as you’ll see in our review, they’ve done just that.…

Since 2008, Kentucky based Rooibee Red Tea has been brewing up their noncarbonated rooibos teas in a nontraditional 12 ounce long neck bottle. It’s currently distributed in Whole Foods stores in Kentucky and other health and natural retailers. In late 2010, they launched a whole new look for the brand, which brings cleaner visuals and a more healthy look to the product. Our review panel takes a look at the revised lineup.…

BevNET is pleased to announce that early registration is now open for BevNET Live Summer 11, which is being held June 6 & 7 at the Sheraton New York Hotel & Towers in NYC.  In addition, we’ve announced an initial speaker lineup, which will again feature experts from various segments of the industry.  As with our past events, all of which have sold out, we expect this one to be a great one!  Register now and reserve your spot.…

Pitaya Plus is a beverage whose key ingredients are pitaya (aka dragonfruit) and coconut water.  Obviously, anything that contains coconut water gets instant buzz right now, but that’s not the only story about this product.  Instead, it’s positioned as a superfruit beverage that contains fewer calories and less sugar than acai beverages, but still contains the same amount of antioxidants as acai and the added benefit of 30mg of omega 3.  The brand is already getting noticed, with a distribution deal with Green Shoots and placement in Whole Foods already underway.  Read our review for more on Pitaya Plus.…

Since founder Brian Stearns first took to the stage of BevNET Live in 2009 to introduce ZUN, the mission for the energetic Boulder, Colo. native has been clear: convince consumers that the liquid inside his unique rocketship bottle is as interesting as its quirky exterior. The functional premise has always been that ZUN makes you smarter; the latest product is that it’ll make you smarter without making you fatter – introducing a sugar-free product enhanced with blue agave. Read our review for more details.…

Sometime in the winter of 1996 — it’s been so long I don’t even remember the exact date — BevNET.com went online.
A lot has changed since then…our URL (it started as “thebevnet.com”, just like “thefacebook.com” – movie inquiries are welcome) … our team (we didn’t have one, just me, a thirsty college student)…and the industry we cover (who could have imagined that gourmet root beers and Snapple knockoffs would have morphed into energy shots, kombucha, and coconut water).
In any event, since the start of the new year marks our fifteenth anniversary, we decided that it was time to…

RelaxZen, Inc., the marketer of the relaxation shots of the same name, has announced the resignation of its CEO and co-founder, Nick West. The other co-founder (and “Chief Zen Officer”), Brent Sonnek-Schmelz, is remaining with the company as its new CEO.
According to the co-founders, money troubles and personality differences – the pair have a 20-plus year age difference – exacerbated by the stress of running a startup led to West’s departure.
“We mutually agreed that it was in the best interest to have one person steer the ship,” West told BevNET in a telephone call. “Brent is a very…

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Activate is a product that has intrigued me since I first saw a picture of a mockup bottle in Beverage Digest in early 2008. The product, which uses a cap dispenser to mix the flavor and nutrients at the time of consumption, is, at least in my opinion, the best-executed product to use this type of cap, selling the benefits of the cap (aka bioavailability) rather than the gimmick of watching stuff drop into the bottle of water below. Plus, it’s hard to pass over a story that starts with “Son of Former Disney CEO Eisner Launching New Beverage” –