East Imperial is a New Zealand-based beverage company that produces a line of high-end tonic and mixers. Packaged in 5 oz. glass bottles with an old world look and textured label, we think that the high end vibe that will certainly work well on-premise.
Alley Cat is a Tennessee-style “fruit tea” that contains 48 percent juice, including orange juice, pineapple juice and lemon juice (all from concentrate). For us, the formulation feels much more like a juice cocktail than anything that resembles tea.
Blue Monkey has been selling coconut water for a while now, but this is the first time the company has marketed USDA Organic offerings. It’s also the first time that Blue Monkey has employed a 16.9 oz. Tetra Pak carton for its coconut water.
Bruce Tea is a new tea brand that is -- as you might have guessed -- named after the well-known martial arts expert/actor. The teas come in two lines, one bottled and one canned, the latter positioned as somewhat of an energy drink offering. Overall, we enjoyed the formulation of the products, yet while Bruce Lee is certainly an icon, his appeal on a tea product some 40 years after his death is certainly hard to gauge.
Whynatte has come a long way since our first encounter with the brand way back in 2009. Gone is the notion of being a hybrid RTD coffee and energy drink (you won’t find any taurine or added vitamins in this one). Instead, the manufacturers have retooled the product to be a great tasting and naturally sweetened latte.
Marketed as "the world's first chewable, drinkable juice," Chuice (which derives its name from the words chew and juice), is made with seeds, nuts, herbs, and greens floating in the liquid. For us, the beverage is one that, while extremely innovative, is not currently as marketable and presentable as it could be.
While the notion of calling something “extra rich” is a too matter-of-fact to us, what Ito En has created with its new Teas' Tea Latte sub-line is quite enjoyable.
While the flavor is definitely not so far off from that of GuS' pomegranate variety, this product is certainly a bit more classic in terms of its flavor and positioning. That being said, this is definitely a nice bolt-on product for the brand, and one that fits in with the rest of the flavors in terms of its execution.
At the 2014 NACS show, Red Bull unveiled an expansion of its Editions line with new Orange and Cherry varieties, each of which are zero-calorie formulations. While the new products are worthy of the Red Bull name, it’s tough to get overly excited about this from a category innovation standpoint as they definitely feels more opportunistic in nature.
With seven varieties in the Bai5 Bubbles lineup, we had a hard time figuring out which ones to focus in on. While some are better than others, none of them disappoint, especially against other zero- or similarly low-calorie products.
Unoco’s Raw Coconut Water is a high pressure processed, “raw” coconut water that comes in a single flavor. The liquid is intentionally pink; when exposed to light, the high phenol content in the coconut water gives it the color. It's certainly one way to separate the brand from competing versions, and Unoco has taken a step further with a highly differentiated label.
Now in its second rendition, the premise of Dust Cutter is slightly revised. This time around, you’ll still find a mainstream-oriented, sugar-sweetened (with a touch of stevia) beverage at the product’s core, but the added ginseng and B vitamins have been removed. This leaves the product focused exclusively on refreshment, which is certainly what it does best.
We’ve seen a variety of pickle juice products come to market, but none have made it past the initial buzz to become anything more than a novelty product. While there’s obviously a big taste hurdle to overcome for a product like pickle juice, looking at Stu’s Sour Elixir makes us wonder if its predecessors' biggest mistake was in how they branded and positioned their product.
Ito En’s Matcha Love platform includes cafes, powdered products and a two-SKU line of ready-to drink beverages. Coming in Unsweetened and Sweetened varieties, the drinks are made with a blend of green tea and matcha (a powdered whole leaf green tea), and packaged in a small 5.2 oz. can that is both simple and approachable.
