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Essentia Water. The brand is another long-term, overnight success story, bumping along for years as a small natural channel brand but climbing to prominence as the tide of alkaline water gradually rose around it. While newer brands have done much of the hard work in raising consumer consciousness around higher-pH waters, Essentia has been the stalwart, the best-selling water SKU in many natural and specialty accounts, and it appears the patience is paying off.

When you’re covering a show that crams nearly 70,000 people, including many with beverage news, it can be easy to pass something significant without a second look. The following list is written so, for the most part, that doesn’t happen.

With news that Muscle Milk has at last hit shelves in the United Kingdom, one wonders what those Brits have been drinking after workouts all this time. A pint of Boddingtons? A cup of Earl Whey?

As the retail shelves become more and more crowded, the differences between beverages and liquid dietary supplements have become less clear. Companies looking to compete in the beverage and supplement industries have blurred the lines separating the categories, creating many similarities in packaging, ingredients and claims.

Because formulations are not easily understood, the term “relaxation” is one that consumers define for themselves, independent of ingredients — creating meanings that are often at odds with how brands position and market their products. .

CSD volume has declined for nine consecutive years, and the 3 percent decline in 2013 was worse than the 1.2 percent decline in 2012 and the 1 percent decline in 2011. Beverage Digest reports that while Coke added to its 42.4 percent market share in the CSD industry, volume declined by 2.2 percent. PepsiCo holds 27.7 percent market share, but saw volume decline by 4.4 percent. Dr Pepper Snapple’s market share is 16.9 percent, but volume declined by 9 percent.

The glaciers can slowly erode; so can the big three soda companies. It may go beyond the overall decline in consumption of sugary products and artificial sweeteners – it might just be changing tastes.

When you’re covering a show that crams nearly 70,000 people, including many with beverage news, it can be easy to pass something significant without a second look. The following list is written so, for the most part, that doesn’t happen.

When Tony Haralambos considers a new brand for his distribution empire in Southern California, it seems that he doesn’t heavily weigh the opinions of Wall Street. That argument gained credence on Tuesday when Reed’s announced a distribution partnership with Haralambos.

There’s plenty of interesting “fruit for thought” here in the canned juice drink aisle, home of AriZona’s lemonades, 1 year-old Mountain Dew Kickstart (hey, there’s juice in there – but they have apparently launched $165 million in caffeinated juicy soda – way to go innovation team!), and, further down, FOCO’s coconut water and even San Pellegrino and Izze. All in all, an interesting catch-all category.

Prior to the launch of MiO, the term “liquid water enhancer” didn’t exist in the consumer parlance, and Kraft executives knew that it would take an exceptional marketing strategy -- and a bundle of cash -- to adequately support the rollout. So how did the company take MiO, a first-of-its-kind product with zero awareness, to a brand that, three years later, is leading a category worth over $400 million?

Something Natural, based in South Boston, Mass., has been added to refrigerated sets in the natural sections of Safeway markets. The company will also begin a test launch of its products in Target beginning in June.

If attendees walked away with anything from FBU Boston, a business education and networking event held by BevNET on Thursday at the Artists for Humanity EpiCenter in South Boston, it’s that entrepreneurs are best suited to endure mistakes as early as possible and to fully commit to an idea.