Q Drinks has added Q Kola and Q Club to its line of sparking drinks and will sample both new products at Natural Products Expo West. Q Kola is a cola made with a number of organic fruits and spices including cinnamon, cloves, coriander, kola nut, lemon, lime, orange and nutmeg . The cola is lightly sweetened with organic agave, contains no sugar or high fructose corn syrup, and contains 70 calories per serving.
Entrepreneur-turned-investor Tom First is apparently going into the oat drink business with a product called Oatworks, a new health and wellness drink that uses a water-soluble form of oat fiber to provide nutritional benefits, satiety, and energy. The product, which uses a Swedish ingredient called PromOat, currently has two flavors, pomegranate and blueberry, and mango and peach.
Just a reminder: the early registration discount for BevNET Live Summer 2012 ends on March 30. BevNET Live, the industry’s largest conference for beverage entrepreneurs and executives, is being held at the Metropolitan Pavilion in Manhattan on June 4 and 5. The event features numerous networking events, including a half-day Expo and the popular New Beverage Showdown competition for start-up brands.
Sokenbicha, a Japanese-blended RTD tea brand managed by Coca-Cola's Venturing and Emerging Brands (VEB) unit, has introduced a new aloe flavor. The new flavor is called Replenish and is a jasmine tea blend made with aloe, organic green tea, jasmine flower, rose hips, ginseng and ginger, and is flavored with mint and pear.
Harmless Harvest is set to launch a 16 oz. bottle for its 100 percent raw and organic coconut water. The new package size has a suggested retail price of $4.99 and will be distributed nationally - along with its 8 oz. counterpart - at natural foods stores, grocery stores, and co-ops through UNFI. Harmless Harvest wrapped up a three month exclusive deal with Whole Foods on January 1, and its coconut water is now sold in over 1,000 stores across the country.
Cobá, a Los Angeles-based beverage company that produces a line of aguas frescas, will debut a new Horchata flavor at Natural Products Expo West. The rice water-based aguas frescas is made from all-natural ingredients and sweetened with 100 percent organic cane sugar. Cobá describes the new Horchata flavor as slightly creamy and light in body with notes of cinnamon and vanilla.
And the hits just keep on coming. A class-action lawsuit filed in Los Angeles Superior Court on Feb. 24 accuses Rising Beverage Co. – the owner of Activate -- of dishonest and misleading statements in its advertising about the freshness of Activate’s key innovation, its “in-the-cap” reservoir of dry vitamins versus those pre-mixed in other beverages.
Guayaki Yerba Mate is expanding into another category format, releasing a trio of sparkling yerba mate beverages – including a cola flavor -- in 12.5 oz. slim cans. The company will debut the line extension at Natural Products Expo West next month. It’s part of a larger, ongoing plan to help turn yerba mate into a more recognizable ingredient – and one with a more easily understood purpose.
Rob's Really Good will launch "Pirate's Daughter," a new green tea and lemon blend, at Natural Products Expo West. Pirate's Daughter is made with 100 percent certified organic ingredients including green tea, peppermint, spearmint, lemon verbena, and lemon myrtle. The beverage is sweetened with organic cane sugar and contains 50 calories per 8 oz. serving.
Coca-Cola has begun to test distribution of Coke, Diet Coke, Coke Zero, Sprite, Fanta Orange and Mello Yello in its plant-based PET bottles, according to the Atlanta Journal-Constitution. The move marks the first time that Coke has used its PlantBottle, a PET container made from at least 30 percent plant-based materials, for any products other than Dasani.
Red Bull is set to launch Red Bull Total Zero in April, the company’s first line extension since the debut of its (now discontinued) energy shot in 2009. Aiming to tap into the growing market of calorie-averse consumers, the new product boasts a zero calorie/carb/sugar formulation and a “new twist” on the classic Red Bull flavor, according to the company.
In a new report on the global beverage market, Rabobank, an international financial services firm, states that greater consumer demand for health and wellness beverages, rising commodity costs, and growing demand from emerging markets will be key influencers of trends and innovation in 2012. Additionally, the report asserts that a combination of soft drinks and dairy beverages will emerge as a “megatrend” in the coming year.
Organic iced tea stalwart Honest Tea will debut a new tea in its glass bottle line at Natural Products Expo West in Anaheim in two weeks. Honest Zero Passion Fruit Green Tea will be available nationally in March at natural food stores and other retailers, including Whole Foods Market, Sprouts and Earth Fare. It marks the first extension of Honest Zero into glass bottles.
The impetus to create an entrepreneurial beverage brand is often a simple one: profit. The genesis of Heart Juice, however, was inspired by - of all things - a heart attack. After hearing about an admired Rutgers professor who had suffered a heart attack, Ray Li and John Vitug, the creators of Heart Juice, set out to create a beverage that could help protect individuals from high cholesterol, a leading cause of heart problems, and support overall cardiac function.
