BevBlog

Red Bull has made it no secret that it includes coca leaves – the botanical origin of the drug cocaine – in the beverage’s all-natural formulation, but insists that there’s none of the naughty stuff left behind. German officials aren’t too sure, and they have banned the sale of Red Bull Simply Cola in six states.
 

For those of you thinking about stocking up, don’t get too excited. At 0.13 micrograms per can, you’d have to drink enough Red Bull Cola to fill a small tanker truck before feeling anything that resembled a drug-like effect.
 

And that’s if the substance found in the cola is even capable of inducing a high. Fritz Soergel, the head of the Institute for Biomedical and Pharmaceutical Research in the city of Nuremberg, told TIME that the discovered substance isn’t even cocaine itself, just a degradation of the original chemical that has no effect on the human body.
 

A German Red Bull spokesman insisted that there is no scientific basis for the ban, and noted that the products have been labeled as safe in the U.S. and Europe.
 

But we may now have to wonder: if Red Bull Cola picks up a strong following with the late-night club crowd, is it due to marketing or its “special” ingredient.

I have two “Eco-Fina” bottles on my desk right now. One stands about eight inches tall. The other, crushed into a lump of twisted plastic, stands about two and a half inches high. The entire mess – save for the cap and neck, fits in the palm of my hand and weighs about the same as two quarters.

This is the water bottle of the future.

For now, at least.

PepsiCo’s light-weighted bottle for its Aquafina brand weighs in at half that of its 2002 predecessor, and PepsiCo boasts that the new package will save 75 million pounds of plastic per year. It’s not easy to check Pepsi’s math, but it is easy to see that the new package will save energy – and maybe the brand’s image. Read the rest of this entry »

Companies connected to the beverage industry have been accused of bringing all kinds of ills on the U.S. populace – diabetes, heart attacks, New Coke – but flavor company Frutarom has now been accused of the dastardly deed of bringing sweetness to the Big Apple.

Mayor Michael Bloomberg announced that Frutarom’s North Bergen, N.J.-based plant has been processing a particular kind of seed that emits a maple syrup-like aroma, and that scent has periodically drifted across the Hudson River to Manhattan.

Certainly, the industry could do worse to the world. And at least it’s better than the usual scent that comes from New Jersey. Then again, anything is better than the reek of medical waste and spray-on tan.

These days, beverages from teas to juices boast about their antioxidant levels. It’s the new “in” thing – like wearing two different colors of Converse sneakers when America had a Punky Brewster sense of style – but at least one company took it took too far, according to the National Advertising Division of the Council of Better Business Bureaus.

The NAD investigated Bossa Nova’s advertising claims that their product contains the more antioxidants than anybody else, and suggested that the juice company not make such claims in the future. The fancy charts they use in their promotions show that acai is the highest antioxidant fruit. The NAD didn’t dispute that claim, but said the juxtaposition with Bossa Nova’s packaging “could be reasonable interpreted to be representative of the antioxidants of the advertised product when that is not the case.”

Bossa Nova said they disagreed – that their claims are supported – but agreed to take the NAD’s findings into account for future advertising and packaging.

Does this boil down to a case of self-regulatory finger-wagging? Or should beverage marketers take head for fear that federal regulators could come next?

In any event, we could have used the NAD’s advice when we all wore mismatched sneakers.

Beverage manufacturers have bottled a lot of unlikely drinks over the years – pickle juice comes to mind – but Jon Wilt may have the strangest idea in recent history.

He’s bottled blocks of ice.

You read that right. Blocks of ice. Mr. Wilt is doing the same thing you’ve done in the past – sticking a bottle of water in the freezer ahead of a hot day – but on a large scale.

Under the name Fria Frozen Water, Wilt has gotten his product into 12 stores, and is working on more, according to the Arizona Star. Wilt says he’s slowly (glacially?) gaining a following, but knows he’ll have to shift gears when the winter comes.

At that point, he will introduce his first line extension: un-frozen bottled water.

Somehow, I think this might get an icy reception.

Read more here.

In one of the stranger quirks of the now-global “Cola Wars,” Pepsi and Coke squared off over the rights to promote themselves on the hopes of an Olympic boxer from Thailand.

Reuters reported that a Thai Pepsi distributor beat Coke to the punch by setting up promotional tents at Worapoj Phetkum’s home. Coca-Cola’s Thai agents countered by cutting a deal with the boxer’s father, Thaweep. Thaweep declared that both companies can stay, as long as they behave.

“If they make problems, both will have to leave,” Thaweep told Reuters.

In other words, he wants a good, clean fight.

Don’t expect this one to slither into the U.S. market.

Japan Tobacco Inc. introduced a new drink in Japan called “Unagi Nobori,” or, “Surging Eel.” While animal names are common for beverages, this one takes its moniker more literally than Red Bull or Venom.

Unagi Nobori contains extracts from the head and bones of the serpentine fish. If that’s not enough, the drink is formulated to taste like the slithery sea-beast.

The Japanese believe that consuming eel boosts stamina in hot weather. I believe that drinking an eel flavored beverage would boost my lunch out of my gut.

Typically, the only good way a mouse and a beverage bottle go together is when Disney partners with Coke for a promotion. Any other combination of rodents and refreshments usually induce screaming, lawsuits and bad PR, but Green Bottle USA has a new way to combine the two.

The company markets a humane mouse trap called “Catch a Mouse.” Customers attach an empty bottle to the mechanism and wait for the little critters to find their way in. Once in, they can’t get out, and you have yourself a mouse in a bottle.

From there you can release the critter a safe distance from your home, or dispose of the pest without need to touch it directly.

Or, you could stick it in the fridge and see how people react. But you shouldn’t do that. And if you do, you shouldn’t tell anyone where you got the idea.

A product popped up on my radar Wednesday that made me dread the inevitable BevNET review. Tru Blood claims to be a synthetic blood substitute. For vampires, mostly. Initially, I doubted the product’s authenticity.

But, then again, I’d met people in college who believed they were vampires – despite making it to daytime classes without turning to a pile of ash. These people would probably go for Tru Blood, and their four flavors – O, A, B and AB – would give them a little variety in their bizarre hobby.

But, as it turns out, the “product” is a piece of viral marketing to promote HBO’s new vampire show, “True Blood.”

Great. It seemed like a bad beverage idea anyway. Where are you going to go for flavor extensions? And what about line extensions? Would they produce the other three humors?

Mmm, Tru Yellow Bile.

Starbucks – that company that stands at the curious intersection of coffee house, RTD brand and beverage retailer – will close 600 company-owned stores.

The company said most of those stores opened in the last two years, and the process will also mean the termination of 12,000 employees. But that doesn’t mean that beverage industry professionals should weep in their lattes.

While the company once helped build Jones Soda, its cooler has more recently featured Starbucks-branded products or products out of the Pepsi system. The closures also likely won’t affect Starbucks’ RTD business.

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