Balance “Cleanse” is a product that takes one of today’s emerging functions -- albeit one that is typically synonymous with juice -- and applies it to bottled water. To accomplish this, the company has added a variety of extracts that were inspired by Australian “bush medicine,” including papaya, she-oak, bottlebrush and bush iris. None of these ingredients impact the flavor, which is certainly a good thing in terms of the drinking experience.
BevNET’s 2014 Functional Beverage Guide features the largest and most comprehensive listing of functional beverage brands from a wide variety of categories as well as dozens of ingredient suppliers. The guide is an essential resource for beverage manufacturers, suppliers, distributors and retailers. Download your FREE copy of the guide here.
The Strawberry Lemonade flavor of A Game is a mainstream-oriented sports drink that features sea salt, honey and B vitamins. From a flavor perspective, it’s not that far off from being a traditional sports drink flavor; it’s almost like a cross between lemon lime and fruit punch flavors.
Wai Koko's new Coconut Infusions line comes in four varieties with each packaged in an 8.5 oz. slim can. Featuring two citrus-enhanced flavors, Island Citrus and Lemon Lime, as well as its original coconut water and a new mocha-flavored variety, the company has created a sub-line that is polished and attractive.
Amid its sprawling booth at the recently held Natural Products Expo West, Califia Farms sampled new single-serve varieties of its Iced Coffee line. Made with a blend of almond milk and coffee, the line comes in three flavors: Salted Caramel, Cocoa Noir and XX Espresso. From our perspective, Califia has once again proven adept at creating great tasting formulations with reasonable sugar and calorie content.
Bucha’s Yuzu Lemon flavored kombucha is the latest addition to the company's line of USDA Organic certified beverages. From a flavor perspective, it’s quite mild and it lacks the vinegar like flavor that you’ll find in many other kombucha products. Instead, it has a flavor that’s better described as a carbonated tea.
Last year, Live Soda Kombucha underwent a very well-designed and well-executed rebranding, landing the company a BevNET Best of 2013 award for Best Product Revamp. Recently, Live Soda added two new flavors, Orange Cream and Sparkling Ginger, that build upon the company's efforts to reach out to broad range of consumers in both natural and mainstream.
First introduced at the 2014 Winter Fancy Food Show, Purity Organic’s Chocolate Coconut Water follows the same style of the company’s other offerings, both in flavor and packaging, starting with…
A lot of the time in the CPG space, the earliest investors you line up will themselves be successful entrepreneurs who recognize the potential for your product. But do you ever wonder how those experienced food and beverage entrepreneurs think about what companies to invest in themselves? Seth Goldman, co-founder & TeaEO, Honest Tea, has invested in several startup food and beverage companies over the years — and shared this piece with BevNET Food & Beverage University.
Sourced from maple sap, but unlike maple syrup, not cooked down into a concentrated form, maple waters have gained some buzz in recent months with a steadily increasing number of brands entering the market. Seva Maple Water is one such brand. With a very light maple flavor, it’s definitely a palatable product and one that is thirst-quenching. But is that enough of a reason to drink this beverage?
Based in San Francisco, Forager Project is a company that produces a range of organic, cold-pressed juices. Marketed as "fast slow food," the brand includes four sublines -- Greens, Nuts, Roots and Cleanse -- with two to four juices in each line. While we enjoyed the formulation of the drinks that we sampled, the naming convention for the juices, differentiated by the name of the subline and a letter (i.e. "Greens A" and "Nuts B") could be improved upon.
Vita Coco’s Lemonade variety is a not-from-concentrate coconut water that is perhaps the company's most mainstream offering to date. Blending lemon puree, which has a pretty assertive flavor, with coconut water and fruit sugar results in something that tastes much more like lemonade than coconut water. To that end, consumers don't necessarily need to care for lemonade to enjoy this product.
Last year, TYR, a sportswear manufacturer, launched TYR Endurance Sport drinks. The company has certainly put out a very professional looking first effort, with a formulation that includes EMIQ (a form of quercetin), carbohydrate complex, caffeine and EGCG, and Ace-K and sugar as its sweeteners. From a taste perspective, the products are very drinkable, but the packaging will need some work for this brand to make its mark.
Kombucha Wonder Drink's "Raw" line comes in three varieties each containing 13 calories and 2 grams of sugar per 11 oz. bottle. While the beverages have a slightly sour note to them, rather that the vinegary taste associated with most kombucha drinks, the products have a mellow flavor and are quite drinkable. If we have any criticism, it's for the labels, but overall, this is a great line.
