Super-premium nut milk brand MALK continues to make headway in the conventional grocery channel and recently expanded its presence at Whole Foods.

In a video interview with BevNET, Theresa Pham, co-founder of Dallas, Texas-based Holy Kombucha, spoke about the Lone Star State’s growing kombucha scene and how the brand is transitioning from the natural channel into conventional retailers. Pham also discussed the company’s revamped packaging and evolving flavor profiles that integrate functional ingredients like ashwagandha and yerba mate.

Speaking with the company’s U.S. general manager Mike Messersmith at Natural Products Expo East 2017, held Sept. 13-16 at the Baltimore Convention Center in Baltimore, Md., BevNET reporter Brad Avery gets the word on how the company intends to compete within the U.S. market and why it believes oat milk offers dairy-free consumers a high quality alternative to other alt-milks.

As expected, Expo East 2017 was a key showcase for innovative and on-trend product launches in both nascent and established beverage categories. Sorting through the nearly 200 drink exhibitors at the event, BevNET's John Craven and Ray Latif offer their take on the most notable and impactful new products for the industry in the above video.

Cold-pressed juice pioneer Evolution Fresh unveiled a major packaging revamp and two probiotic-infused sublines at Expo East 2017. The Starbucks-owned brand also announced its commitment to 100 percent organic ingredients and formulations by 2019.

During an interview at BevNET Live Summer 2017 in New York, KeVita founder and former CEO Bill Moses spoke at length about his experiences starting, growing and selling the company in his first interview since it was acquired by PepsiCo for around $230 million last November.

BevNET Live Summer 2017 got off to a billion-dollar start last month with a presentation from Scott Uzzell, president and general manager of The Coca-Cola Company’s Venturing & Emerging Brands division (VEB).

In an interview at the recently held 2017 Summer Fancy Food Show in New York City, Graham Fortgang, co-founder of MatchaBar, explained that the company’s cafes in Manhattan and Los Angeles act as a “huggable billboards” for the brand’s RTD drinks as well as incubators for innovative ideas.

At the 2017 Summer Fancy Food Show in June, BevNET spoke with five early-stage beverage brands, each of which market innovative concepts for packaged drinks and unique takes on emerging beverage categories.

CideRoad founder and CEO Kevin Duffy hopes that the company’s latest innovation, Spritzel, will help bolster consumer awareness of switchel, an apple cider vinegar-based beverage, as “America’s original soft drink.”

BevNET hosted Mike Burgmaier, managing director at Whipstitch Capital, Nick Giannuzzi, managing partner at law firm The Giannuzzi Group, and Tim Spier, founder and managing partner at Boulder Food Group, for a panel discussion on the state of beverage investment last week at BevNET Live Summer 2017.

In a wide ranging presentation on beverage trends, Weiland discusses topics such as the rapid growth of drinkable bone broths and fermented beverages, why cold brew coffee still has room to expand, and why he thinks tree waters are a way off from competing with coconut and watermelon waters.

Three days prior to the blockbuster announcement that Amazon would acquire Whole Foods for $13.7 billion, Matt Jimenez, the senior category leader for Whole Foods’ global grocery team took the stage at BevNET Live Summer 2017 and discussed recent changes to the company’s grocery management structure and buying processes.

In terms of setting up direct-to-consumer marketplaces, creating “full basket” solutions with Amazon Fresh, and simply providing a place for customers to search by keywords for specific products, the e-commerce titan has begun to exert an outsized influence in the ways consumers shop.