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Rob Ehrlich, of Rob’s Really Good, has always been fast on his feet when it comes to rolling out on-trend products, but this has to be something of a record. One day after New York Mayor Michael Bloomberg launched his latest salvo against the beverage industry by attempting to severely restrict the sale of sugary beverages larger than 16 ounces, Ehrlich announced plans to release three zero-calorie Kola-nut based sparkling beverages.

Only nine months after its launch, Coco Café is going national. The company recently revealed that it will enter the Dr Pepper Snapple (DPSG) system beginning in early June, a key piece of a national DSD network that the company hopes to complete later this summer. Acute beverage watchers will note that Coco Café is mirroring the same growth path as parent company Vita Coco, which has begun transitioning most of its distribution to national DPSG houses.

BevNET has learned that former Muscle Milk marketing chief John Blair has joined shot-and-a-beer brand Bruvado as President after a slow exit from the protein drink's parent company, Cytosport.

Corn refiners suffered a defeat yesterday as the FDA rejected an industry petition to rename high-fructose corn syrup as “corn sugar” on nutritional labels. The Corn Refiners Association (CRA), sought the name change as part of an effort to reverse years of controversy and negative publicity about the health effects of the sweetener. However, the FDA decided that "corn sugar" does not "accurately identify or describe the basic nature of the food or its characterizing properties."