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The 2013 Summer Fancy Food Show begins this Sunday in New York City. The show is North America's largest exhibition for specialty, natural, and gourmet foods and beverages, and BevNET.com will be on hand to report on news and innovation from beverage-related exhibitors at the show.

Calling Bai Brands, LLC, a “game-changing company,” Strand Equity Partners yesterday announced the acquisition of a minority ownership stake in the coffeefruit beverage marketer. Headed by marketing and entertainment maven Seth Rodsky and Theodore Schwartz, founder and former chairman of APAC Customer Services, Strand was launched earlier this year with a focus on investment in “emerging and dynamic consumer brands.”

Within the past nine months, Monster Beverage Corp. has been slapped with two high-profile lawsuits, each alleging that the company engages in unsafe and irresponsible marketing practices. Now, the energy drink giant is facing yet another potentially damaging hit to its reputation. The Associated Press (AP) today reported that Monster is facing a new lawsuit which claims that a nineteen-year-old’s death was tied to his habitual consumption of the company’s energy drinks.

The package accounts for only 2 percent of all soft drinks sales, but The Coca-Cola Co. and PepsiCo are looking at glass bottles as a potential growth area for a category mired in decline, according to a recent article in The Wall Street Journal. Buoyed by gains in the sale of soda in glass bottles and the premium price commanded by the package, the cola giants are increasing the availability of their products in glass.

“It’s super-exciting right now,” said founder Randy Shefshick. “Clearly, Sparkling Ice is the hottest product on the planet, and they’ve proven there’s a market for flavored sparkling water. We think we’re the natural alternative to that – almost like the Honest Tea of the sparkling water category.”

Proliferating independent coffee shops and efforts by the likes of McDonald’s to upgrade their coffee offerings are stimulating consumers to rethink their views about old man Joe, and stirring an abundance of new activity in the ready to drink coffee category.

Energy drinks marketed as dietary supplements have received their share of negative news stories over the past eighteen months, and many companies are weighing various options to find relief from the mounting concerns surrounding these products. One option that is being explored by many companies is the reclassification of liquid dietary supplements as beverages. However, making this switch is not as easy as just changing the name on the front of the can.

It’s known and celebrated for a vast selection of namesake private label goods, but the relationship that Trader Joe’s shares with ZICO is a special one, indeed. ZICO is one of a handful of brand-name products -- and the only coconut water -- that Trader Joe’s carries in its stores. Now, the two companies have taken their close arrangement one step further with the quirky natural grocer’s exclusive release of new variety ZICO Tropical.

BevNET is now accepting submissions for its new Natural Beverage Guide, the industry's largest guide to beverages targeting the natural channel, including juices, teas, bottled waters, CSDs, concentrates, powders, and other natural beverage enhancers. This key resource will be aimed at beverage retailers and distributors who are looking to include additional natural products.

In the wake of the great goat devastation wrought by a Mountain Dew advertisement directed by rapper Tyler, the Creator, for the citrus soda, the media was rife with stories about ways that brands that seek an “urban edge” often fall off that edge into the chasm of unintended consequences.

In Los Angeles, known as a hub for beverage incubation, the nascent cold-pressed juice category has found a suitable home that’s ripe for new additions.