BevNET.com Staff

Posts by BevNET.com Staff

Review: Purity Organic Chocolate Coconut Water

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…

What Angel Investors Look For In a Natural Foods Company — PLUS Seth Goldman’s Bonus Criteria

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.

Review: Seva 100% Maple Water

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?

Review: Forager Project

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.

Review: Vita Coco Lemonade

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.

Review: TYR Endurance Sport

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.

Review: Kombucha Wonder Drink “Raw”

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.

Review: Xiomega Seedless Chia Water

Fortified with chia seed oil, rather than seeds or ground chia, Xiomega Seedless Chia Water has no detectable taste of chia.This could be opportunity for the company, in that some consumers dislike the texture of some some chia drinks. However, we do wonder about Xiomega's use of agave as a sweetener and think that the label for these products definitely needs an upgrade.

Review: Suja Essentials

Launched in January, Essentials is Suja’s third line of organic, HPP juices and designed to be a more mainstream offering than its other lines. The launch comes with a subtle…

Review: drinkme Juices

drinkme, which markets a line of "cold blended" and high pressure processed juices and smoothies, recently updated its packaging and moved into a new 15.2 oz. round-edged bottle. While the company had done well with the formulation of the products, we’re still left feeling as though the company could do more with the label.

Review: Mastiqua Water

Mastiqua is a sparkling mineral water flavored with mastiha, "a world-renowned natural resin from the Mediterranean island of Chios," according to the supplier. For most people out there, that really will give no indication as to the taste of this product, which has a flavor that is almost like a light birch or sarsaparilla flavor with a mint finish. While we do like what's inside the bottle, we think that the branding, which is very heavy on its Greek origins, is not the best way to position it.

A. Hardy USA, Ltd. to Represent Vizcaya Rums

DES PLAINES, ILLINOIS — A. Hardy USA, Ltd. is pleased to announce their new business partnership with Imex Spirits for the national distribution of the award winning Vizcaya Rum. A.…

Why the Specialty/Gourmet Channel is Important for Early Stage Brands

At the 2014 Winter Fancy Food Show, we spoke with several attendees & exhibitors about why the specialty channel is “more forgiving and less expansive” to enter than other channels and ways that food and beverage companies can manage an effective specialty retail strategy.

Review: Daily Greens (Additional Varieties)

More varieties of Daily Greens means more green juice -- and once again, we like what the company has formulated in the three additional varieties that we sampled for this review. From a hemp milk-based beverage to a juice blended with carrot and tumeric, we like the way that the company has offered consumers a bit of differentiation from competing products.