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.

In this video, BevNET’s John Craven and Ray Latif examine current trends in the dairy alternative category through the lens of the product developments on display at the recently-concluded Natural Products Expo West 2017.

In an interview with BevNET CEO John Craven, WTRMLN WTR founder Jody Levy expressed optimism that, with key pieces in place, the cold-pressed watermelon juice brand is primed to grow beyond its roots in the natural channel and into more conventional retailers.

In this video interview, Zevia CEO Paddy Spence discusses the rollout of its new products and how the company has marketed itself to a younger consumer demographic seeking better-for-you beverages.

INVO Fresh is making an ambitious play to be at the forefront of coconut water’s next stage of development with Coco Collisions, a functional, six-SKU product line extension that debuted at Natural Products Expo West 2017.

At Natural Products Expo West 2017, organic juice stalwart Uncle Matt’s continued its foray into functional beverages with the debut of a new Organic Energy juice that is formulated with organic coffeeberry and ashwagandha, and extended its probiotic water line with two new varieties.

With strong growth comes strong innovation, and there was no shortage of new dairy alternative products showing off the category’s ingenuity at Natural Products Expo West 2017. Trending at this year’s show were nut milk-based creamers, with multiple companies rolling out offerings for dairy-free consumers seeking better ways to thicken their morning coffee.

BevNET’s Jeff Klineman interviewed Thomas at Natural Products Expo West in Anaheim, Calif. and found a stirring profile of a company that is balancing growth across three divisions: its largest, a retail kombucha line, as well as on-premise gourmet tea houses and a new distilling operation that repurposes the alcohol generated from kombucha fermentation