Reviews

Califia Farms Nitro Cold Brew is a dairy-free offering that is, at least as far as we know, the first nitro cold brew offering to incorporate almond milk (and macadamia milk).

LIVE has done a nice job of creating one of the more market-ready vinegar-based offerings that’s currently out there. While it’s hard to say exactly how big the potential is for a product like this, it certainly seems like something that can tag along with their kombucha products, at least in some retail outlets.

Compared with what’s already on the market, this product isn’t exactly an innovative offering. But its execution is clean and the product is enjoyable, which allows Starbucks to be in the game with something that can certainly hold its own.

The BluePrint Organic brand has been on an innovation tear as of late, releasing a host of new beverages that include both juice products and vinegar drinks. Its latest effort is this one, a four flavor line of organic kombuchas.

SToK is a relative latecomer to the cold brew coffee category, and we think it’s going to take some serious brand building effort to get traction.

From a packaging perspective, the new green label more effectively catches the eye than prior efforts. You are almost immediately drawn to the “Original Coconut Smoothie,” which is both the flavor name and the descriptor of what’s inside the bottle.

Vita 500 is a vitamin drink that is popular in South Korea, which is where the product is manufactured. Its key benefits are its 500mg of vitamin C (830% RDA) as well as B vitamins, which come inside a formulation that tastes somewhat like a non-carbonated cousin of an energy drink.

For the purposes of this review, we sampled two flavors, Pinot Sage and Apple Juniper. As far as “mainstream” kombucha flavors go, these definitely seem far from it. The products have only trace amounts of bubbles, a modest amount of sweetness, and a slight oak note.

Jittery John’s offers a diverse line of cold-brew coffee offerings. They have seemingly every type of cold-brew covered: ready to drink, nitro, concentrate, office delivery, single origin, New Orleans style, and even a high pressure processed variety with Brazil nut milk.

Love Grace’s Herbal Energy is a three-flavor line of USDA organic certified high pressure processed beverages that was created to complement its cold-pressed juice lineup. The common theme across the three flavors is described in the tag line “energy and nutrition balanced.”

We didn’t necessarily think there was something essentially wrong with their old label. But the new one reflects the evolution of the tea category as well as where guayusa, Runa’s key ingredient, stands within it.

With the market for vinegar products continuing to evolve -- and BluePrint continuing to build its brand beyond the juice cleanse -- the company is trying to extend its product set with an apple cider vinegar (ACV) drink.

Sap! is a two-SKU line of beverages that are made with a single ingredient: carbonated maple sap. It’s a play that’s not dissimilar from that of maple water, which is also maple sap but in its natural, non-carbonated format.